Leveraging Safety Resources in Your Own Community - Fire Engineering
In private industry, safety professionals share best practices through a number of different platforms across all types of work environments. What has surprised me is the lack of contact fire safety professionals have outside of the fire service.
One exception is former police officer and renowned safety expert Gordon Graham. Graham has succeeded in addressing police and firefighter groups. Earlier this year, when I was attending a weekend health and safety officer (HSO) class, the instructor popped in an old Gordon Graham speech I had not seen before. In the clip, Graham explained that, when he had first learned to drive, he studied something called “The Smith System,” which is a driver safety training system. He went on to explain how important systems were to reduce risk. As his talk continued, he brought up United Parcel Service (UPS) and how it also successfully used systems to manage safety. This story ended when he revealed that UPS also used “The Smith System” to train their drivers on how to prevent crashes. Let me explain just a little of what UPS’s multilayered system encompasses.
First, I would like to say that Graham had it right—UPS does have a very integrated safety system which includes a lot of reliance on the “Smith System.” So, can these best practices be exploited by the fire service? I believe they can.
In private industry, safety professionals share best practices through a number of different platforms across all types of work environments. What has surprised me is the lack of contact fire safety professionals have outside of the fire service.
One exception is former police officer and renowned safety expert Gordon Graham. Graham has succeeded in addressing police and firefighter groups. Earlier this year, when I was attending a weekend health and safety officer (HSO) class, the instructor popped in an old Gordon Graham speech I had not seen before. In the clip, Graham explained that, when he had first learned to drive, he studied something called “The Smith System,” which is a driver safety training system. He went on to explain how important systems were to reduce risk. As his talk continued, he brought up United Parcel Service (UPS) and how it also successfully used systems to manage safety. This story ended when he revealed that UPS also used “The Smith System” to train their drivers on how to prevent crashes. Let me explain just a little of what UPS’s multilayered system encompasses.
First, I would like to say that Graham had it right—UPS does have a very integrated safety system which includes a lot of reliance on the “Smith System.” So, can these best practices be exploited by the fire service? I believe they can.
