b'outinothersminds.Youneedtopracticeensure that each job is individually reviewedinstead the outcome from this accident was a what you preach and take every opportunity toregardingthepossibledangersinvolvedandlot of grumbling about not having the proper advance the safety culture. Case in point: theorientationshouldbecustomizedtofi cleaningmaterialsbecausesomegoofballt eachposition.Finally,thecleaningitemsalmost killed themselves. An employer used to hire a lot of summershouldhavebeenstoredseparatelywith workers, mostly very young adults and lateinformational signs warning of the danger ofThebusinesspersonmustneverlosethe teens, for various non-skilled labor jobs. Onemixing diff erent chemicals. opportunitytoimprovethesafetyculture day, one of these young people was told toof the company as well as the safety culture clean an area by their supervisor who didntIfithadbeenhandledthisway,Ibelievemindsetofeachemployee.Doingsowill givemuchthoughttothepossibilitythatitwouldhavegreatlyimprovedthesafetyonly improve the overall safety results of the culture of the business and the safety culturebusinessanditsemployees.Theemployees anything could go wrong. This young personmindset of the entire workforce, including thewill respond to the proper approach and the mixed two cleaning solutions that shouldntfuture workforce. But this didnt happen andbenefi ts will be mutually gratifying. have been combined and a catastrophe was narrowly avoided by quick reactions fromAbout the Author: other workers nearby. Moral of the story: never mix ammonia and bleach. You may think this is common sense, but this youngRICHARD McCANNperson was never told this by anyonenot their parents, nor their employer, nor theirAuthorsInformation:RichardMcCannlives supervisor.ThesepeopleassumeditwasinCapeMay,N.J.andin2018retiredCaptain commonknowledgethatthosechemicalfrom PVA member Cape May-Lewes Ferry; and is agentsshouldntbecombined.Sowhatthe founding member of Ballast Marine Services, happenedafterthisneartragicaccident?LLC in 2015; and is a member of the Passenger TheemployerimmediatelyremovedbothVessel Association.cleaning supplies and it was impossible to get either for use again. They then chastised the supervisor for failing to properly oversee this employee who was moved to more menial/safer labor and was eventually laid o .Inmyopinion,thiswasanopportunityto nurturethesafetycultureofthebusiness andtoincreasethesafetyculturemindsetUSCG-Certied Light-Weight ofeachindividualworkingthere.Instead,Aluminum Honeycomb Panels the workforce was left wondering how their necessary cleaning gear could be taken awayfor Passenger Ferriesdue to improper use by someone that didnt understand the danger because they were never informed of the danger. If more thought haddecorative | durable | functionalgoneintotheprocess,severalthingscouldrigidized.com/markets/marinehave happened to enhance the safety of the workforce and the safety culture mindset of each individual. Isnt that what we are after in the fi nal outcome from such mishapsto improve the way we do things in order prevent thesetypesofaccidentsfromhappeningin the future?First,thereshouldhavebeencomplete transparency from management via a memo senttotheentireworkforcedetailingthe accidentandthedangersofmixingthese chemicalsor,forthatmatter,mixing chemicals in general. Then, there should have been a revamp of the orientation process to 658 Ohio Street | Buffalo, NY 14203 | marine@rigidized.comAUGUST 2021 17'