Health And Safety Regulation

[rhondda rudie]

Saw a really disturbing report on one of the US news channels last night.It concerned a plane crash near Buffalo about 3 years ago which killed around 50 people.Pilot error was the official cause of the crash but it was generally accepted that fatigue was the real reason.The two man flight crew had just eight hours rest after finishing their previous shift and hadn't slept in beds but on chairs in a crew room.The cockpit voice recorder recorded both men yawning constantly during the flight.

Because of the crash US aviation authorities are introducing new safety regulations.The minimum gap between shifts has gone up from eight to ten hours (still way too short for me) and maximum shift length has gone down from sixteen to fourteen hours (still way too long surely).Incredibly cargo plane pilots have been excluded from the new regulations.

I work on the railways and have some experience of these types of regulations and the reasons for them.In the late eighties there was a major crash near Clapham Junction in South London that resulted in the deaths of over thirty people.The cause was an error made by an electrician working on a signal.It transpired he had been working twelve hour shifts for seven weeks without a day off prior to the crash.Now railwaymen must have at least twelve hours rest between shifts and can't work more than thirteen consecutive days or more than seventy-two hours in a week.

Let's face it,it's in nobody's interests to have fatigued zombies transporting us around,either in the air or on land.I also think that health and safety regulations should be thought of,not as bureaucratic interference for companies and their employees,but as a history of what has gone wrong in the past and a set of procedures to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

[JB40]

what he said.

[San Diego]

We have several friends who are pilots and fly for major airlines...I can't tell you how many times they've told us that they spend that "down time" between flights, stretched out in waiting room chairs, trying to sleep. Yep, that's the man I want in control at 40,000 feet!

[ANiMALicious]

agree in principle tom but most companies only employ these laws to take the blame away from them when the shit hits the fan.

Some stuff that comes from ger... ooh i mean brussels is ok for things as you pointed out in hind sight but bannin kiddies from the three legged race or egg an spoon race is total crap... its so schools and councils dont get sued for negligence.

The world has gone suing mad and thats what alot of these laws prevent people from doing... suing there employer.


Ani

[JB40]

I think you'll find that most of those examples have turned out to be untrue ani. cooked up by the right wing press and the tory little englanders.

If you remember the QI post recently. Most of the rules we thought were being imposed on britain have been made up.

[rhondda rudie]

Originally Posted by ANiMALicious

agree in principle tom but most companies only employ these laws to take the blame away from them when the shit hits the fan.

Some stuff that comes from ger... ooh i mean brussels is ok for things as you pointed out in hind sight but bannin kiddies from the three legged race or egg an spoon race is total crap... its so schools and councils dont get sued for negligence.

The world has gone suing mad and thats what alot of these laws prevent people from doing... suing there employer.


Ani

Think the problems with village fetes and school sports days are more to do with the compensation culture and resulting extortionate insurance premiums than health and safety legislation Ani.

[ANiMALicious]

then how are we supposed to know which ones to follow and which to ignore?


Ani

[MrGhost-F.G.E]

still have to pay 50 odd quid to climb a ladder or replace a plug.



anyway i blame alan hansen for absolutly everything even thatcher.

[rhondda rudie]

The irony is that much loved community events have come under threat because insurance premiums have increased hugely because of ambulance chasing law firms which have,in turn,emerged because of the DEregulation of the legal industry.