Risk Tolerance Factor #7 Over Confidence in the Equipment Note to Facilitator: The research on this factor – Over confidence in Equipment – and factor #8 – Over Confidence in Rescue and Protection – are based on the research of Dr. Gerald Wylde and the principles of ‘Risk Homeostasis’.

10 Factors That Influence Risk Tolerance Overestimating Capability/Experience ↑ Familiarity with the Task ↑ Seriousness of Outcome ↓ Voluntary Actions and Being in Control ↑ Personal Experience with an Outcome ↓ Cost of Non-Compliance ↓ Over Confidence in the Equipment ↑ Confidence in Protection and Rescue ↑ Potential Profit & Gain from Actions ↑ Role Models Accepting Risk ↑ “Excessive trust that the equipment will always perform as designed and never fail” Factor #7,overconfidence in the equipment, occurs when we have placed excessive and some times unwarranted trust that the equipment or tool we are using will always perform exactly as designed. The possibility that the equipment could in fact fail is not considered, discounted or minimized.

Over confidence in the equipment can be recognized by statements such as: “It has never failed as long as I have been using it” “It’s fail safe” “It’s brand new! Of course it will hold!” “... and then the equipment will automatically ...” When we become familiar with particular tools and equipment and have not experienced any failures when we have used them, we can become overly trusting that the equipment or tool will never fail. This factor can be linked to Influencing Factor #2 (Familiarity with the Task) except in this situation we have become familiar with the equipment or tool. 1) When we hear a statement such as “It has never failed as long as I have been using it” this is reflective that we may becoming complacent with the particular tool. 2) This factor can also be identified where we hear that a particular piece of equipment is ‘fail safe’, meaning that if something does go wrong, we expect the equipment will be a ‘safe’ failure and nobody will be hurt. 3), A brand new piece of equipment or tool can be perceived as been fail proof. It is new, shiny and clean and this can portray a message that the possibility of it failing is remote. 4) Process equipment often comes with built in safety systems that are designed for safe start up, safe shut down and warning systems and programs that will detect problems and then automatically take care of them. As sophisticated as the devices may be, failures have occurred.

Factors Influencing Risk Tolerance 7) Over Confidence in the Equipment “Ladder is twice as stable, therefore ... ” 1995 US Study – Cars with ABS have more accidents, no safety gain with airbags because drivers became more aggressive. Parachuting – ‘Failure to deploy’ replaced with ‘late deployment’ Factor #7 , Over confidence in Equipment, is reinforced through studies done in the US and in Britain. The 1995 study on drivers using vehicles with anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and air-bags showed that drivers were more confident that they could stop faster with ABS and therefore tended to drive faster. There was no net gain in the reduction of incidents where braking was a factor. The British study on sky diving revealed that in the early 80’s most of the deaths in the sport were attributed to a parachute not deploying ... essentially a flaw with the equipment. 25 years later, with great improvements to the technology of parachutes, the sport was seeing the same number of fatalities. The cause however had changed and it was rare to find a chute that failed to open. The cause now was that sky divers were so confident that the equipment would deploy that they were deploying the chute as late and the chute did not have sufficient time to deploy. Equipment failures had been replaced with late deployment due to the confidence in the equipment. The three examples shown are re-enactments of work place injuries. The fuse dropped out of the hot stick and hit the operator. The bungee cord hook slipped off the anchor. The brace the worker stood upon failed under his weight. Have any of these failed? A hot stick? A bungee cord? A brace?

Strategies for Reducing Tolerance Training on limitations of the tools ratings on lifting equipment ratings on ladders ratings on scaffolds Training on limitations of the engineering knowing how shut down sequences work pressure ratings on equipment (including negative pressure – vacuum) Stop and Think ... What will happen if it does fail? Train on the limitations of the tools, as an example, do the workers know how much force can be applied to a pipe wrench before it breaks? Teach workers to look for the ratings on the slings and lifting equipment (and to know the weight of the load to be lifted). Incidents have occurred where the operators were expecting the engineered shut down systems to look after things if anything went wrong. The shut down parameters need to be understood including things like delays, response time of instruments, etc. Stop and Think remains a key strategy. Workers need to ask the question from the Stop and Think Card “What will happen if it does fail?”. When a response to that question is “It has never failed”, the Stop and Think process needs to force the discussion to continue ... “It hasn’t failed previously, but what if it does this time? Are we prepared for that type of failure?” The bottom two examples are photos from incidents and re-enactments that can reinforce this principle. “What would happen if the steam hose does fail? Who would be exposed to the hot fluid? How do we mitigate that?” “Where will the energy go if this tool does slip? Is anyone in the line of fire?”.

Exercise and Discussion on “Over Confidence in the Equipment” Do you drive differently (i.e. more aggressively) on winter roads when you put high quality winter tires on your vehicle? Is there a tool in our work place that we have damaged from excessive force? Is there a piece of equipment that we push to the operating limits knowing that if we go beyond the limits the equipment will respond appropriately? ( PSV will activate? Over speed will shut it down? Crown saver will activate?) Are there electrical circuits we use that could be over loaded but we expect the breaker to trigger if it is? The intent of this slide is to generate a group discussion on very specific issues in this work place where this Risk Tolerance Factors may be an issue. Action items to address these should be documented with responsibilities and timing defined. What are we going to do about these?

Stop and Think ... What will happen if it does fail?