The fear of God, health and safety 3
11th Dec 2008
Hello lovely people
There was the case where the Metropolitan police was charged with breaching safety laws. The reason for this was that in two separate incidents officers fell through roofs while chasing criminals. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
And then there was the council that banned backstroke during busy times in the local swimming pool to avoid collisions.
Visitors to Britain in the summer are always impressed by the beautiful hanging baskets that brighten up lampposts in city centres with lovely flowers. This is no longer the case in Suffolk, where these baskets were banned on the grounds that they may fall on pedestrians. There has not been one such accident in the more than two thousand years of history of Britain, and the first one will not be in Suffolk, that’s for sure.
And a final example:
A County Council wanted to install thirty electronic speed indicators. These are electronic signboards that show the speed of oncoming drivers. The intention is for drivers to realise that they are exceeding the speed limit, so that they can slow down. The tricky bit is that the electronic speed indicators can only be installed by somebody going up a ladder. Now, before you can go up a ladder, you must comply with the Health and Safety Executive’s Working at Height Regulations 2005 (amended 2007) which are based on the EU’s Working at height Directive (2001). Huh?
Council workers are not allowed to put up the electronic speed indicators because none of the council staff have received ladder training. Allowing a person without ladder training to use a ladder will result in a £5000 fine (and 14 people had died after falling off ladders over a period of a year). This is far more important than the £60 fine for speeding (which resulted in 350 road deaths over the same period).
So, what is plan B? Get the local police to put the signs up – they have had ladder training. The police put up three of the cameras, and then went on to find the roofs that crooks normally run on to escape, so that the roofs can be fixed.
On to plan C – the fire brigade. However, the fire fighters are either playing hard to get, or they are too busy saving cats from trees. As a result the remaining 27 electronic speed indicators have not been installed yet. I wonder where one gets ladder training. I don’t think that a lamppost is too high for me?
Do you see how we allow people to shape our view of the world? And we simply buy into it rather than question their judgement and motives. And who should we blame – the people that create our realities? No. We need to take responsibility for our own actions and views, and we should have the courage to question other people’s actions rather than just shake our heads and accept whatever they say because we think that is the only option available to us.
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Love and Light
Elsabe
