Dive Brief:
- Two fatal accidents in the construction of Levi's Stadium in California this year should remind contractors everywhere that accidents can and, sadly, will happen despite all safety training and your workers' care.
- Have a plan for what happens after a 911 call sends any and all emergency help your way, including making sure that the senior people on site know who should get called and what they should do once medical problems are resolved.
- Three important steps are to lock down the site, get pictures and, if you can, video of how things were when the accident happened, and get a record of who was there before witnesses begin to drift away.
Dive Insight:
Confusion almost inevitably follows an accident—especially if it is a fatal tragedy like the most recent Levi's Stadium accident, in which a truck driver who had delivered a load of rebar died when the steel slipped somehow as it was being unloaded and fell on him. Confusion is the enemy of trying to properly identify what happened and why, both for legal purposes and to learn from mistakes so they do not happen again. Having a plan in place before an accident gives you a much better chance of gathering information than relying on even the best people to figure out what to do in the emotion of the moment.
