Sad but true. In 2020, OSHA celebrates its 50th anniversary. Safety’s sage, Dan Petersen, published “Safety Management, a Human Approach” in 1975. Lessons haven’t been learned.
Deep investigations and voluminous reports are on the shelves on inferior safety cultures leading to NASA’s Challenger and Columbia space shuttle catastrophes; the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout; the 1989 Phillips chemical complex fire and explosion that killed 23 and injured 314; the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion killing 15 and injuring 170; the 2008 Imperial Sugar refinery explosion killing 13 and injuring 42; the 2013 West Fertilizer plant explosion killing 15, injuring 150, and damaging or destroying 160 buildings; and most recently media attacks on the safety practices of Boeing, Amazon and Tesla, among others.