Page 84 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY
Improving Safety with Video Surveillance Solutions
These systems are used for security purposes, but they are also used for much more, including operations, maintenance, and safety.
BY ANTHONY INCORVATI
80 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2018
www.ohsonline.com
Transportation system owners tend to con- cern themselves with improving operational efficiency, capacity, and continuity—often, they’re more concerned with these than they are with the usual security aspects. Naturally, loss of revenue and incurred costs make prevent- ing disruptions a high priority, but at the same time, safety incidents incurred internally by staff and con- tractors, and externally by passengers, can severely disrupt the operation, and more importantly, cause harm to individuals.
In many workplaces, there are a wide variety of op- portunities for accidents and injuries. This is particu- larly true in the transportation field, where people are working on safety-critical systems in an environment where there is a high potential for injury, both to the passenger and especially the employee. For example, any time someone is working around power, such as
on a passenger rail or automated people mover system guideway, there exists the potential for causing harm to himself or others.
In addition to injury, safety incidents also bring the potential for lost work time, higher insurance, and workers’ compensation claims, all of which affect to a business’s bottom line. This is why practically every organization has an established set of policies and pro- cedures designed to prevent accidents and injuries. This must be the foundation of any safety program, and compliance to these policies and procedures is paramount, trumping virtually everything else.
In theory, better safety practices should deliver a number of main benefits, including fewer injuries and workers’ comp claims, improved productivity, poten- tially lower liability insurance premiums, and much more. However, even the strongest and most stringent policies and procedures are useless if employees do
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