July 2010 Safety Briefing

June Safety Beacon

Lessons learned from towing a disabled vehicle. While, traveling to their home at Sheppard Air Force base a SM car broke down. His Pick-up truck was enough to tow the car, so they located a car dolly at a near-by U-Haul. They then continued on their trip.

Then it happened, about 1/2 hour from home the trailer jerked and began to sway back and forth behind the truck. Thankfully, the SM did not panic and brought the whole rig to a stop. The hitch pin was missing and the draw bar was out of the receiver lying on the pavement. The safety chains had done their job and the SM's actions kept the situation under control.

Lesson 1: Safety consciousness does not make you invulnerable.

In his job, the SM teaches safety to young men and women when maintaining USAF equipment. In a previous job he was a unit safety NCO, and had checked over everything before leaving with the car in tow.

Lesson 2: If you haven't done something in a while, rethink how to do it.

In a former USAF job, the SM towed equipment around the flightline. The USAF uses hitch pins that have a hole in them. In this hole a cotter pin is inserted to prevent the hitch pin from escaping. The hitch pin being used on that day was grooved and so pushing it clear through to the larger rounder portion of the pin caused it to bounce off during towing and the draw bar to come out of the receiver. As important as the proper installation of safety pins is, a broader application to safety in general is made.

Lesson 3: Watch how a person is doing something, not just that they are doing something.

A person with the SM was watching the SM insert the hitch pin, but never looked down to be sure it was being done correct. There is no guarantee that it would have prevented the incident, but this was one more chance to prevent it.

Lesson 4: When you’re tired, slow down.

After finishing the trip, the SM parked the truck and car at his house. After releasing the safety straps, the SM entered the car and just before he was going to move it off the dolly, someone noticed the ramps were not down. While this is not likely to cause injury, it is possible to cause bodily damage to the car. With the ramps down, they were ready to try again. Or were they. This time when they tried to move the car, the front wheels began to spin. They had forgotten to release the chains wrapped around the frame for safety. They realized that they need to slow down because they were tired from the ordeal. Once they slowed down, the car was successfully remove from the dolly and was repaired with about $100.00 in parts and 4 learned lessons on  towing a car safely.

Summer Drownings (this is DDRO also)

In 2002, there were 400,000 drownings worldwide. There were 3,500 drownings in the Unites States, (or about 10 per day) making this the third highest form of accidental deaths in the U.S. Of these 3,500, 25% were 14 years of age and younger.

There are two peak age groups for drownings; younger than the age of 4 and in young adults age 15 to 25.

Children up to age 1 most often drown in bathtubs. Children up to age 5 most often drown in residential pools. Young adults age 15 to 25 usually drown in larger bodies of water, such rivers and lakes. Neck fractures caused by diving into shallow water are a common cause of drownings in the age group. Also drownings in this age group have approximately 50% caused by alcohol related.[1]

New Cadets

Talk about ORM and Basic ORM requirement.