On a Tuesday afternoon, you send a maintenance contractor out to a remote station to perform a routine check on some of your equipment. Your contractor drives out to the nearest access road, parks his truck, and walks over to the site. When he gets there, his personal gas monitor alerts him to high levels of dangerous gases. He knows he should call for backup, but it could be another hour before a peer can help. This has happened before, so he thinks he can make a quick fix and get out of the cold. He silences the alarm on his monitor, bends down to start working, and is overcome by the gases.
When you haven’t heard from the contractor by the next day, you ask around the shop. Nobody has seen him. You remember he was headed out to one of your remote stations the last time you saw him. You send someone to look for him – but by then, it’s too late. You think about who will deliver the news to the man’s family.