This week, Frick and Frack work up their nerve and delve into letters from their critics, who assure them it takes more to produce great videos than fancy equipment.
The message stings, but it reminds us of an important factor that influences the decision making process: overconfidence in your equipment. Follow along in this month's Construction Safety Video Blog.
Better Isn't Always Safer
Just because you get better equipment that is newer and more technologically advanced, that doesn't mean you necessarily improve your safety numbers. In this video, Frick and Frack present two great examples of this safety factor in action.
- A German cab company in the 1980s switches their fleet over to anti-lock brakes. When they analyze the results, they find drivers are going faster, driving more aggressively and getting into even more accidents.
- Skydiving equipment has come a long way since the 1930s. What do we do with parachutes that have much lower rates of failure? Take more risk, increase free fall time and deploy the chutes too late.
Being too confident in your equipment can lead to pushing risk to the extreme, increasing chances of job site injury or even death.
More From Frick & Frack
If you've missed our other videos or want to review the other factors influencing risk tolerance, we've got the series so far right here:
- The 3 Key Safety Factors That Guide Decision Making
- Overestimating Capability or Experience
- Beware of Familiarity with a Task
- Seriousness of the Outcome
- Voluntary Actions and Being in Control
- Personal Experience with an Outcome
- The Cost of Non-Compliance
This duo will be back next month to talk about Overconfidence in Rescue and Protective Systems. While you wait, watch for overconfidence in equipment in your workplace. Don't rely on equipment as your only measure of safety - be mindful and emphasize safe behavior.
You don't have to wait for Frick and Frack to learn all of the factors that influence construction safety. Download our Complete Guide to Fatality Elimination for the rest.
