The Saskatchewan construction community recently came together in Regina with a clear objective: strengthening efforts to prevent serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs) across the industry.
Hosted by the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA), the event brought together a workshop and keynote dinner featuring Dr. Steven Ayer, an energy-based safety specialist and educator in construction safety and management at the University of Colorado Boulder.
According to a release, serious injury rates in Saskatchewan’s construction sector have declined steadily over the past decade when measured against recent peaks and long-term averages.
“The decline is significant and reflects the sustained efforts of employers, workers and industry partners to strengthen injury prevention, including the growing adoption of formal safety management systems through the COR® program,” the release states.
Despite the improvement, serious injuries remain a major concern for the industry. They continue to represent a disproportionate share of injury-related costs and have historically been more difficult to address through traditional prevention approaches.
“The further reduction of serious injuries and fatalities is one of the most important remaining challenges for Saskatchewan’s construction industry,” the release adds.
A central focus of the Regina event was energy-based safety, an approach that examines construction sites using a consistent and scientific method to identify every source of energy capable of causing harm to workers.
Ayer said the method can help workers and employers recognize hazards that may not always be identified through conventional safety planning.
His work on High Energy Control Assessments is changing the way high-energy hazards are identified and controlled in the field, with a focus on understanding where potentially dangerous energy exists and how it can be managed.
“High energy is often required for work to be accomplished. While eliminating high-energy hazards would be ideal, it’s not often practical. We need to identify those hazards and prioritize controlling them to keep workers safe,” Ayer said in a statement.
He also emphasized that human mistakes are inevitable and that safety systems must take that reality into account.
“We all make mistakes. The question is not ‘if’ it is ‘when’ these mistakes will occur,” Ayer said. “If high-energy hazards miss controls to prevent or hinder this transfer of energy to workers, when mistakes happen, the impacts are likely to be far more severe.”
