Posted By Kieran J Duignan
John

If by 'route cause' you are actually referring to the ROOT of the accident, it is reasonable to infer that there were about four other roots that caused the low-safety culture that spawned the event you cite:

1. inadequate safety training of the operatives in particular about safe behaviour

2. absence of suitable safety warning notices on the containers and in the loading area

3. failure in supervision at least once and quite possibly repeatedly if not continually

4. inadequate reporting and analysis of 'near misses'

A process known as 'the fundamental attribution error' accounts for a common failure of assigning responsibility for an event inappropriately. A useful rule of thumb to avoid it is to ask; 'what were the operatives and supervisor(s)thinking and feeling when they acted in ways that contributed to this event? What can a smart safety professional do himself to influence them to think and feel in ways that prevent such harmful behaviour?

Please noticwe that I'm NOT encouraging you to invest in 'behavioural safety', but in action on your own part, personally, to leverage alternative, less risky patterns of behaving amongst your workforce.

Before pressing anyone to invest time and money building a loading bay, why not spend a fraction of the necessary resources in getting to grips with root causes which, according to your report in your question, were not actually noticed?