1. Driving Safety
From the Project Owner to the Sub-
Contractor

2. Overview
• Case Study – Frontline Investigation – “Cell
Tower Deaths”
– Sent out in May 3, 2012 email to FEPA Safety
email list.
– PBS, Correspondent Martin Smith
• Multi-employer Worksite Rule
• Responsibilities of employees, employers,
contractors and project owners

3. Video File

4. Case Study
• What does climbing cell phone – Sub-contractors
towers have to do with pipelines? • ROW contractors
• Paving companies
– Projects
• Excavators and landscapers
• Expansion Projects
• New Installations – Employees
• Ground Beds • Tough
• Re-coats • Not afraid of anything
• Relocations • Out to prove themselves
• Turbine and Recip installations and – Deadlines
Overhauls • In Service Dates
– Project Owners • Service interruptions- Gas control
• Pipeline / Energy Companies and customer windows
• Down time
– Contractors
• Pipeline Construction Companies – Costs
• Cathodic Protection Companies • Budgets
• Turbine and Recip Companies • Sub contractor cuts
• Labor costs

5. Safety Culture
• Symptoms of an unsafe culture:
– I’m a tough “pipeliner” / construction
worker!
– I don’t want to look like I can’t hack it!
– I’ve been doing this job forty years.
– I’ve done it like this thirty years and
never got hurt.
– You can talk that safety stuff but, at
the end of the day, the work has to get
done!
• Our goal is zero accidents!
– That was the goal of the Titanic too!

6. Safety Culture
• Every company, project, work team and
employee has a safety culture.
• It is either good or bad but it is always there.
• “Safety is culture driven and management
establishes the culture.” – “Advanced Safety
Management” by Fred A. Manuele.
• Where your management leads your
company’s culture will follow.

7. Safety Culture
• Culture is driven by management.
• Culture is expressed by the employee.
• Employee behavior is a sign of the company’s
culture.
• Culture is “the basic values, norms, beliefs,
and practices that characterize the functioning
of an institution.” Fred A. Manuele
• So who’s job is safety?

8. Sound like a pipeline or construction
worker?

9. I’m Superman
• What type of employees does the pipeline,
energy and construction industry attract?
– Tough
– Can do anything attitude
– Look up to seasoned veterans and want acceptance
– Will not say no
– Out to prove themselves
– Cocky?
• I’ll can’t get hurt, I’m only 21 years old. Nothing
can hurt me.
• Safety Culture?

10. Who’s job is safety?

11. Who’s Job Is Safety?
• Each individual is responsible for safety, right?
• James Reason states: “The impact of (top
level) decisions spreads throughout the
organization, shaping a distinctive corporate
culture and creating error-producing factors
within individual work places.”
• Safety should be invisible:
– It should be so integrated within the culture that it
is not seen as a separate aspect.

12. Who’s fault was it? He did something
unsafe! /But they allowed him to do it!

13. Symptoms of the Culture
• Filled out an application, got a $600.00 check and
flew out the next day.
• Had no prior experience.
• Was repelling:
– Was he trained to repel?
– Horsing around.
– Co-workers cheering him on.
– Broken hook that popped off the tower. (required
inspection prior to use).
– Recent drug use.

14. The Blame Game
• Kyle Waites, President of Phoenix
– 2 levels below project owner
– Contractor of the sub-contractor / employer (All Around Towers)
– “I would make some phone calls and open the door and once I got them in
they would pretty much take it from there.”
– “I was not the guy that put the crew leader in charge.”
– “Waites puts most of the blame on Gifford for breaking the safety rules and
All Around Towers for broken equipment and lack of supervision.”
– “Once you leave men alone, the men have to police themselves.”
– “The man in charge has to be the sergeant.”
– “You can’t hold the hand of everybody one hundred percent of the time.”
• Robert Hale, Former Climber
– “When you are allowed to do something that is strictly unsafe, then
something is wrong up the line somewhere.”

15. Was Human Error The Cause?
• “The Blame Machine: Why Human Error Causes
Accidents” by R. B. Whittingham,
– “Disasters and serious accidents result from recurring
but potentially avoidable human error”
– “Human error typically result from: organizational,
cultural, technical, and management system failures”
• In “ A Field Guide to Understanding Human
Error”, Sydney Dekker states: “Human error
should be the starting point of the investigation,
not the root cause.”

16. What drives your culture? Time?
Money? Projects? Contracts?

17. Safety Is Number 1
• Safety FIRST!
– But have the project completed by this date!
• Zero accidents is our goal!
– Getting this project done is yours!
• We had ZERO recordable injuries on our project!
– But, our contractor (or sub-contractor) had 15 lost time injuries
and 3 fatalities.
• No one wants to get hurt, and few employees break rules
to be malicious.
• Most incidents occur when employees do something
unsafe because they believe it is for the company’s benefit
(“The Courage Factor”, Scott Geller).
– Schedule, money, deadlines, customer needs, etc…

18. Is this your Project Manager /
Inspector?

19. What’s Wrong With This Guy?
• He is actively caring!
• He is engaged!
• He is conducting site audits and inspections!
• He is holding people, crews and companies
accountable!
• He is establishing a culture!
• He is setting a standard!
• He is making safety equal to all other aspects of
the job!
• He is putting people above the project!

20. Multi-employer worksites- Compliance v/s
Prevention? Liability v/s Deniability?

21. Layers of Projects
• In the pipeline /
Project Owner
utility industry
we usually have Inspector
a rep on site. Turf Contractor- General
– DOT Contractor
compliance,
damage
prevention, Sub-contractors
etc…
• Hard to build
layers to protect Employees
us from citations.

22. Four Classes of Employers
• The exposing employer- Any employer
who’s employee or employees are
exposed to a hazard during the course of
the employee’s duty.
• The controlling employer- Any employer
who has the authority to make changes or
have another employer to make changes
on a jobsite.
• The creating employer- Any employer who
created or who’s employees created a
hazard on a jobsite by.
• The correcting employer- Any employer
who has the responsibility and means to
correct a hazard.

23. Who Gets the Citation on a Multi-
employer Worksite?
• On multi-employer worksites both construction and
non-construction citations normally shall be issued
to the employer whose employees are exposed to
the hazards (The Exposing Employer).
• Others that CAN be cited are the:
– Creating;
– Correcting; and
– Controlling

24. Defenses For A Multi-Employer
Violation
 Did not create the hazard.
 Did not have the authority to correct.
 Notified the responsible party, warned own
employees, and removed them from the
hazard.
*The employer must meet all of
these standards.

25. How do project owners / contractors
prevent these issues?
• Hire competent contractors that hire competent sub-
contractors and employees.
• Require training
• Require drug testing programs
• Contracts that require compliance
• Vet contractors & subs
– Work history
– Incident Modifier Rate
• Conduct audits and site inspections.
• Watch for contractors shutting down and reopening under
another name.
• Hold management accountable for safety requirements.

26. How do employees prevent these
issues?
• Participate in required training
• Follow safety rules.
• Participate in audits and site inspections.
• Watch out for each other.
• Don’t take short cuts.
• Hold the employer accountable for safety
policies.

27. Build A Culture of Safety
• Top Down / Bottom Up
• Integrate safety in to the business, not a
separate function. (Invisible)
• Employee, Team, Supervisor, Company, Sub-
contractor, Contractor, Project Owner
ACCOUNTABILITY!