i thought the regulations ,laws ect ect are to protect us from them

16 workers died during the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and 121 died during construction under the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. How many would die if the same projects were undertaken today?

I have no doubt that the 10,000 Chinese miners who die every year must think that Aussie workers are a bunch of limp wristed fairies.

I lived in Singapore for several years. One day I woke to find that construction workers had erected scaffolding consisting of bamboo poles tied together with cord. I guess they must be real men when you compare them against the Aussie wimps and their harnesses and workplace safety rules.

Is that the point you were making?

It seems that every other day I see a post from you decrying the lack of regulation in caravanning. Specifically you argue that caravanners should have specific towing licences and should undergo courses of instruction to teach them the safety issues. However, when it comes to workplace safety, you ridicule it as an unnecessary imposition by a nanny state. In fact you seem to be suggesting that anyone who is killed on the job is an idiot who deserves their fate. The fact is that many workers are dead because of the mistakes of others, or due to accidents that were beyond anyone's control. The Australian Wiring Rules, for one, are constantly being updated in the light of lessons learned from workplace accidents.

16 workers died during the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and 121 died during construction under the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. How many would die if the same projects were undertaken today?- said Dorian

I doubt if The Snowy Scheme would be built today.

dorian wrote:

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It seems that every other day I see a post from you decrying the lack of regulation in caravanning. Specifically you argue that caravanners should have specific towing licences and should undergo courses of instruction to teach them the safety issues. However, when it comes to workplace safety, you ridicule it as an unnecessary imposition by a nanny state. In fact you seem to be suggesting that anyone who is killed on the job is an idiot who deserves their fate. The fact is that many workers are dead because of the mistakes of others, or due to accidents that were beyond anyone's control. The Australian wiring rules, for one, are constantly being updated in the light of lessons learned from workplace accidents.

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 Pray tell me how you think that a pretty hard hat, 'safety' goggles, steel capped work boots, earmuffs, long trousers, long sleeved shirts and having to carry, clipped to his belt a pair of gloves "just in case" would be of any use to anyone working under "Australian wiring rules" .. And when you've done that perhaps you could then give me an idea of how all this crap is of any use to a man working alone in the middle of a desert? But some Tin God says I've got to  use it all for my own "safety". Spare me. They should get a real job. Whilst I agree that some workers die at work because of the mistakes of others, many more are authors of their own fate. Forkhoist driver lifting a load at the extreme height of his forks can't see load so puts head out front of cab, but behind mast (uprights),so he can look up. THEN tilts mast back and squashes his head between mast and front of cab. Only did it once. Grader driver lies down between rear axles of grader for a snooze at lunchtime. Mechanic doesn't know he's there, starts grader to move it and runs over grader driver's head. There are many more that I could relate and not one could have been prevented by using all this "safety" rubbish we now must wear. Back to the caravan courses to teach safe loading procedures and towing practices. When a van goes RSup the accident is likely to negatively impact other innocent people going about their business, or indeed travelling with the caravanner. This is a real danger as opposed to the often imagined dangers that all the protective gear I've listed is forced on us in order to "protect" us from. While we've got laws in place that allow Corolla drivers Ma and Pa Kettle to retire, trade the Corolla on the flash twin-cab ute or some such, with its alleged "3500kg towing capacity", hook up the flash 3500kg ATM van, overload it and the car to the point of stupidity and set sail to "Do The Lap" we always will have trouble. Unfortunately, the situation seems out of control as I rarely see a fully compliant setup, not because the owners don't care, but because they simply don't know, having never been taught or tested. These people usually are receptive to advice, although you get the occasional dipstick who doesn't care. Perhaps he'll care when he discovers that he has no insurance? There is little doubt that on some occasions some of this "safety" gear" is of benefit to some workers,but blanket rules that force all workers to wear all of the gear all of the time are ridiculous. Cheers.

-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 9th of July 2022 08:20:04 PM

I guess it was about 10 years past I read an article on the BBC News website something to do with improvements to playground safety; in the follow-up comments was one from a guy of, I think, about my age who wrote:

"When I was a child all the playground equipment was set in a bed of concrete so you had to be really careful when you rode your bike down the slide."

I remember doing exactly that :)

Mike Harding wrote:

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I guess it was about 10 years past I read an article on the BBC News website something to do with improvements to playground safety; in the follow-up comments was one from a guy of, I think, about my age who wrote:

"When I was a child all the playground equipment was set in a bed of concrete so you had to be really careful when you rode your bike down the slide."

I remember doing exactly that :)

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 Nice one Mike. Those  memories are similar to mine and helped me to learn quickly to understand and accept the consequences of my actions. Then the "Do gooders" arrived on the scene to put rubber surfaces under much of the playground equipment in today's parks and playgrounds. It's becoming almost impossible for kids to have a decent accident that they can learn from! Cheers

-- Edited by yobarr on Saturday 9th of July 2022 07:39:54 PM

Plain Truth wrote:

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yobarr wrote:

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Plain Truth wrote:

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Where is the LIKE button

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 Thanks Alan. Cheers

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 Sorry yobarr,that was for Dorians post

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Really? 

My public playground was 3 or 4 stormwater pipes scattered around some random brick walls on a concrete base, obviously!

There was a 4 level rocket & a swing which was twice as high as today's swings. You could launch yourself into a sandpit if you got the timing right, which was full of aluminium can ring pulls.

We all had tetanus injections with needles that would frighten the living daylights out of you, which made the bows & arrows, & guns with caps look like calming devices.

About five years past I did some work for a multinational company with an operation in Victoria, a state-of-the-art engineering project with a budget way into the millions.

I was doing something with electronics in the lab and needed a scalpel type knife to make some mods. to a PCB but couldn't find one... so I put an order in to an electronics supplier for various stuff I needed and a handful of precision knives.

It so happened I was not in the office for the next couple of days when my order arrived so it was sent to my boss. When I returned I discovered the, opened, box of ordered items on my desk and went through it to ensure all was correct but I couldn't find the knives. I asked Janet if she had received the order and opened it, "No, Colin [my boss] signed for it." Off I went to see Colin and ask "Where are my knives, they're listed on the delivery note?" "Oh I confiscated them" he replied.

I said "What the *^&!$%DWXZ*&% are you talking about, we're not at &*^$!%)*$ school, I'm a senior engineer, I know how to use sharp tools!"

"Ah", he said, looking rather sheepish now, "It's a company rule that all knives must be XYZ knives" - XYZ knives being some sort of stupid knife that retracts if stupid people put too much pressure on it or something stupid like that. "But XYZ knives are no *&$X!# use to me at all! They are intended to cut open cardboard boxes not perform surgery on precision circuits" I mentioned, beginning to calm down slightly now.

"No, they won't do that." Colin agreed and continued "Look, if I give them to you and anything goes wrong will you say you brought them in with your own tools?"

God help us! :)

It's probably why so many tools are battery powered these days. Cheaper than all the testing & tagging.

 

 

 

Our block of Units. Fire safety report twice yearly for common areas, each Unit annual notification to manager, rental Units smoke detectors inspected annually, Asbestos report updated every time we do something, Safety report, child locks on all windows with 2 metre drop.

 

Stupid things like, when we had new balustrade installed which complied, the safety report said it needed to be measured to see if it complied even though it had just been installed.

Having worked in industry since the late 1960s both in the UK and across many countries both developed and underdeveloped I have no question but that we are well rid of many of the practices I have seen (and I still have the burn scars of one); however I also have no doubt we have gone too far on safety rules and are now treating grown adults like children - see my post about the knives.

There is a happy line in all of this but currently we are well on the silly side of it.

I was carting demountable buildings onto sites in Central and Western Qld for the gas expansion a few years ago.
We got to one site, where we (the truck drivers) were standing around batting the breeze, waiting for the crane to get set up to unload us.

All of a sudden, a Hilux pulls up, and out gets a young lady, covered head to toe in all her reflective, hi-vis, steel toed, safety glassed, ear-muffed, glory (most of which had no dust or dirt on it, and much still had the factory creases in it.)
One of the blokes said "what's the bet she's their OH&S rep?" No takers for that bet!

She walked up to us (complete with the obligatory clipboard), and asked us where were our gloves? We replied that they were in the trucks, and would be put on when we were unchaining the loads.
Her reply was that we had to wear gloves "at all times whilst on the site." One of our number had the sheer affrontery to ask her why this was so, since we weren't doing anything that our hands remotely needed protection from.

The response was something I will never forget! "One of our engineers got his foot hooked in the seatbelt while getting out of his ute. He fell onto the gravel, and skinned the palm of his hand, so everyone has to wear gloves from now on, to prevent this type of injury from occurring again!" I kid you not!!

Quick as a flash, one of the other drivers said, "Wouldn't it be easier, and cheaper, to send that numpty on a course to learn how to get out of a vehicle?"

Her response to that was along the lines of "My boss is working on a Safety Directive on proper methods of entering and exiting vehicles. In the meantime, you will have to wear your gloves whenever you are on-site, and not actually driving your trucks."

The world has truly gone mad!!

-- Edited by Donh54 on Sunday 10th of July 2022 07:27:19 PM