Page 86 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY
sary to improve employee safety. For example, if incidents occur more frequently in certain areas, video cameras can be positioned to monitor those areas more closely and determine why this may be happening and how future issues might be avoided. Video surveil- lance also could be used to investigate a high incidence of accidents and injuries with a particular piece of equipment and determine whether employees are following safety practices. A review of the video might show that injuries are occurring because the equipment isn’t operating properly and needs to be repaired or replaced.
Training
When it comes to safety, training is of paramount importance for preventing accidents and injuries. This is yet another area where video surveillance can contribute to improving employee safety. Any time an accident happens, an organization can use video as a tool to help identify when, why, and how an incident occurred. The video also may reveal opportunities for additional training to reduce the likelihood of future issues.
Unless there was an equipment malfunction or other extenuat- ing circumstance, an incident may have occurred because someone was using equipment for which he or she had yet to receive proper training, or an individual may not have been following proper safety protocols. Regardless of the cause, employees can then be shown the video to demonstrate how adhering to proper policies and procedures could have prevented a problem.
“Verification and validation” is everything. Remember the old
saying that “seeing is believing”? This is definitely the case with safety training. There is a big difference in effectiveness between employees hearing or reading about potential safety issues and their solutions, versus seeing for themselves exactly where some- thing may have gone wrong and how following established policies could have prevented it from occurring in the first place.
Video is a powerful tool in the training process, providing a concrete—and highly memorable—case for why employees should do things correctly. As a result of viewing video of an actual inci- dent, employees will better understand the potential outcomes of their actions and will be more likely to follow proper safety policies and procedures. Using video as a learning tool enables continuous process improvement that will pay dividends in helping to prevent future incidents from occurring.
When using video surveillance for improving workplace safety, it is important to consider video quality and the system’s ease of use. From a quality perspective, organizations should opt for cam- eras that will provide the level of detail necessary to accurately de- termine the relevant who, what, when, where, why, and how from the video. Given the variety of camera styles and resolution avail- able, organizations should work with a skilled security professional to ensure they are choosing the right camera, recorder, and video management software for the right job.
Anthony Incorvati is Business Development Manager, Transporta- tion, for Axis Communications, Inc.
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