Re: End Safety Theater
 

I would like to see teams start calculating, keeping track of, and reporting their incident rate throughout the build and competition seasons. It'd be interesting to see where FIRST is at compared to other industries, and it'd be a good way for teams to compare how they're doing against one another.

It would also be a good way to set goals for teams in the future - zero never looked so good.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

+1 for this.

Last weekend at the MAR Mt Olive District there was a kid walking around with a metal sign that said "Wear Safety Glasses". I took that as "safety theater" and 'confronted' the kid (in a nice way) and asked, with many people watching, "do you also carry that sign around your shop during build season?". He was a little confused for a moment, but clearly a quick thinker, saying "Yeah, sure I do". I think he got the point.

Oh, and his team didn't win a safety award.

The Lead Safety Advisor is typically a UL Employee. The rest of the Safety Advisors are all recruited by the local VC.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

"Recruited" is a loose term. ;)

As a VC, it's more that we assign based on who signs up for the role. Sometimes we don't have much of a choice. Other times there's many people wanting to do a role, and there's some research that has to happen in order to determine the best person for the role.

It'd be great if we had more people who wanted to be Safety Advisers for events. :D

Re: End Safety Theater
 

At IE, most of the teams "yelling" robot were at least quiet about it. More like saying.

Except for one mentor who yelled it at the top of his lungs--and his team pit was near inspection, where robots were constantly moving. The LRI went over after one of those yells, muttering something under his breath about "enough is enough", and apparently asked him to tone it down--didn't hear him again all event.



I agree with efoote, though. I think more safety would happen if the metric used wasn't necessarily signs and theater, but actual incident logs and incident avoidance measures (including training, response plans, and reviews when incidents happen).

Re: End Safety Theater
 

If you look in post 11 you would see what I look for. Since 2007 I have used what the teams can show me about their safety program at their shop and how they handle things at the event. Signs have had little meaning to me. Another school near 192 had a very bad accident. By having the manuals, written training and testing records, and the fact the students could answer the districts questions we were able to keep open without any changes. The other school had many new limits put on their program. At an event teaching is more importsnt then giving an award. The goal is so that each team has the same number of fingers and toes that they started with.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

At competition this past weekend, I listened carefully during the Safety Award. I think I pinpointed why teams insist on "Safety Theater."

The Safety Award "Celebrates the team that progresses beyond safety fundamentals by using innovative ways to eliminate or protect against hazards."

"Beyond"
"Innovative"

These are two key words in the award description. The teams that act in the Safety Theater are really just fulfilling the spirit of this award, and hard to blame them when this is how it's encouraged.

Maybe people can suggest changes to how the award should be described in the official manual?

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I agree that there may be over zealous teams or students that create what you call the "the safety theatre". However, it's great that teams take safety serious. Check out the posts on blue smoke, exploding air tanks and damaged robot parts. These threads alone should indicate that we all need to take safety seriously.

Safety is a culture that begins and ends back at your team meetings and facilities. Just don't talk the talk to win the award. Walk the walk and instil a safe environment and culture 24/7/365. You'll get noticed if you do and you are sincere about it.

You can be the most talented and brightest worker in your field but if you practice unsafe habits you may not have a job for long. Education and good habits start with FIRST in most cases.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

This is what happens when you wear gloves around moving equipment

NSFW LINK FOR GORE AND LANGUAGE
"I was working on a polishing machine, polishing a metal box, when the glove I was wearing caught in the wheel and pulled my hand onto the rotating mop for 2-3 seconds. I managed to stop the machine and get my hand out. It didn't come out shiny..."

We had a member who would wear gloves in the pit just to please the safety inspectors and he would ALWAYS get points for it.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

That is a good example, but it is worth putting a NSFW notice on as the pictures are a little gruesome and the comments contain several instances of choice language.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

I am gonna keep this around for the next person at a regional that tells me I need gloves for working in the pits with power tools.

I 100000% agree with all the things stated in this tread. I have seen more and more teams, especially this year, join with signs and posters, more so for publicity then anything else. And "safety advisers" that are just volunteers who blindly seem to go alone with the teams with posters...

I am not faulting anyone, or going to point out specifics but lets just try to end all of the theatricals. But remain safe and vigilant, a lot of which is just using common sense and politeness.

Re: End Safety Theater
 

I think some of these signs are, at least in theory, for the benefit of people who are not familiar with FRC. Spectators, family, and FIRST outsiders checking out the competition may not understand that they need to be wearing safety glasses 24/7 in the pit. On Saturdays at regionals, I often have to tell young visitors (10 and under) to put their glasses back on. If the signs saying to keep glasses on are everywhere, it makes their parents more alert to the issue and more likely to check on themselves and on their child.

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On the other hand, if signs are everywhere, many people tune them out as spam. Cutting down on the visual overload isn't a bad thing in my view.

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When it comes to safety theater Orlando had the IMAX 3D, the popcorn and the butter. We have a pull cart allowing our drivers to politely ask people to step aside. This worked until a volunteer told me I have to yell ROBOT when moving your robot in and out of the pit. We politely declined and reminded her that you never have to yell HUMAN or SHOPPING CART in supermarkets.

On our way back we where reminded that we MUST yell ROBOT if your are moving it out of your pit. We resorted to saying it in the quietest manor possible.

MUCH worse than the occasional ROBOT was the non-stop FLL kids screaming SAFETY FIRST! they where led also by the volunteers and zig zaged through the entire pit area yelling SAFTY FIRST louder than I heard anyone yell robot. when i asked the volunteer for a purpose they told me that it provided a helpful reminder to the FRC students and mentors.

Just remember ROBOT is not the only part of safety theater.

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Ironically enough, the kids shouting were creating unsafe situations in which teams could not communicate properly. In our pit area, they became a distraction. I'm not sure why, but they made a stop in front of our pit area (On the corner, directly in front of Pit Admin) to "remind" us to be safe. This caused a small traffic jam of robots which, in my personal opinion, is way worse than a convoy of 'bots trying to move through the usual pit traffic.