amigacooke
Well-known member
Removed by poster.
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Aberfan
- Thread starter amigacooke
- Start date
Health and Safety has also made a ton of people rich especially those who have no idea what so ever about Health and Safety but do an online course and are all of a sudden are qualified to teach others how to be safe. The transport industry being one of those where folks who wouldn't even know what side of a truck to climb in are now all of a sudden telling drivers the rules.
I'm all for every body making it home safe every night but out here Health and Safety has made it worse for most industry's whilst making a few rip off merchants rich.
Mick.
I'm all for every body making it home safe every night but out here Health and Safety has made it worse for most industry's whilst making a few rip off merchants rich.
Mick.
cyberdongreen
AKA: cyberdonblue
But that's because, like many other things Mick, it's been hijacked by the Politically Correct Brigade and turned into something it was never meant to be.
The Aberfan tragedy happened when I was a child of similar age to those that died. It is the first time in my life that I ever remember being shocked by something that I heard of and saw on the news broadcasts. It was heartbreaking. The callous behaviour of pit bosses etc - even after the tragedy - is something I, and I'm sure those more affected than I, will never forget.
The principle of Health and Safety is a marvellous one. There should never be another tragedy like Aberfan if its principles are upheld. However, if we were to lock up or isolate these politically correct prats in our society it would be even better because we wouldn't all be drowning in their bull**** and we'd be able to see the wood as well as the trees.
Dave
Hi everybody.
I believed that the OP started this thread so that forum members could remember and pay their respects to all those that died in the aberfan tragedy, one hundred and fourteen of them primary school children. Therefore can I say as a person of twenty two years old at the time of the the disaster I well remember the the shock of the whole British nation on the day of the tragedy and in the weeks that followed,
I am sure I speak for many who like me could be nothing else but deeply moved on seeing today those who survived the school disaster recount their memories fifty years on of being buried under hundreds of tons of coal slag waste. Those survivors also recalled what it meant in the days that followed to realize that they had lost all their young school friends by way of an incident they could not comprehend at the age of five, six or seven.
I am sure that any person with any vestige of humanity felt deeply for the two survivors who recalled for the first time to the viewing television audience today what it meant to be caught up in the disaster and surviving with a lifelong feeling of deep guilt at still being alive when so many of their school friends did not. They recalled those memories so that they are now recorded for all future generations to know just what happened on that day fifty years ago.
No one was ever brought to justice for the tragedy even though it should have been easily foreseen. However the incident was a leading factor in bringing forward the UK Health & Safety at Work act which has reduced workplace and associated accidents by over eighty four percent since its introduction in the early nineteen seventies.
The above act brought myself into industrial safety when I was elected by way of that act as the employees safety representative and sent on a one month full time trade union coarse by the road transport company I was working for at that time. Prior to that I had been a heavy goods vehicle driver for eighteen years so here is someone who well knows “one end of a truck from the other”.
I am a person who has since the above continued to work in road transport safety for over thirty years dealing with problems, incidents and persons involved in accidents throughout that time and increasing my qualifications by experience and exams sat. So, I and very few others in the UK gained our qualifications by way of any correspondence course as the above figures demonstrate.
Bill
I believed that the OP started this thread so that forum members could remember and pay their respects to all those that died in the aberfan tragedy, one hundred and fourteen of them primary school children. Therefore can I say as a person of twenty two years old at the time of the the disaster I well remember the the shock of the whole British nation on the day of the tragedy and in the weeks that followed,
I am sure I speak for many who like me could be nothing else but deeply moved on seeing today those who survived the school disaster recount their memories fifty years on of being buried under hundreds of tons of coal slag waste. Those survivors also recalled what it meant in the days that followed to realize that they had lost all their young school friends by way of an incident they could not comprehend at the age of five, six or seven.
I am sure that any person with any vestige of humanity felt deeply for the two survivors who recalled for the first time to the viewing television audience today what it meant to be caught up in the disaster and surviving with a lifelong feeling of deep guilt at still being alive when so many of their school friends did not. They recalled those memories so that they are now recorded for all future generations to know just what happened on that day fifty years ago.
No one was ever brought to justice for the tragedy even though it should have been easily foreseen. However the incident was a leading factor in bringing forward the UK Health & Safety at Work act which has reduced workplace and associated accidents by over eighty four percent since its introduction in the early nineteen seventies.
The above act brought myself into industrial safety when I was elected by way of that act as the employees safety representative and sent on a one month full time trade union coarse by the road transport company I was working for at that time. Prior to that I had been a heavy goods vehicle driver for eighteen years so here is someone who well knows “one end of a truck from the other”.
I am a person who has since the above continued to work in road transport safety for over thirty years dealing with problems, incidents and persons involved in accidents throughout that time and increasing my qualifications by experience and exams sat. So, I and very few others in the UK gained our qualifications by way of any correspondence course as the above figures demonstrate.
Bill
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cyberdongreen
AKA: cyberdonblue
And you are perfect example of the kind of person who SHOULD be involved with Health and Safety, Bill. Your day to day experience of how the shop floor works is invaluable in understanding how legislation translates into everyday life. You have a sense of the real effect of what comes from the legislators whereas the Politically Correct mob seem to have no understanding at all of daily work life or, worse still, no understanding of basic common sense.wholbr;1549520[COLOR=#000000 said:
There needs to be a certain amount of flexibility in all rules and regulations but, it seems, our P.C. friends can't wait to run off to the the legal profession who then want to interpret everything literally. This results in many of the outrageous
and ridiculous outcomes that we read of daily in newspapers and on the internet.
Toddler 'breathalysed' by joking police in Cheshire (UK)
See BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-37734883
Nice to have a bit of fun too though :hehe:
Dave
P.S. God bless the children of Aberfan - past and present
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Hi everybody.
First of all can I apologize to Amigacooke the OP of the thread for at times seemingly being somewhat off topic in this posting and previous one, but I feel it is very relevant to the subject.
In 1966 when the Aberfan tragedy occurred there was no Legislative requirement for any workplace to have a person(s) on a work site with direct legal responsibility for safety. Indeed, industrial safety was almost non existent in many trades with only a few industries covered by various working acts. Many forum Members above “a certain age” will like me remember the notice board in our workplaces being covered with such documents as the “Docks And Warehouses act 1923” or the “Factories Act 1925”.
The above acts and others similar did little in the way of bringing safety to employees, but gave details of when wages etc had to be paid and often only made recommendation on safety practises with no legal obligation on the employer to carry them out. However, following the Aberfan disaster and a number of other serious workplace incidents the UK government pushed by the then very strong Trade Union Movement began to bring forward new and comprehensive workplace safety legislation which culminated in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The above act took from start to finish over five years to arrive on the statute book due to opposition from employer organizations and time delaying tactics in Parliament by groups of MPs. However, the act did finally arrive, and I well remember as an HGV Driver in the road haulage industry at that time how things suddenly and dramatically changed in the way work was carried out. The acts introduction was without doubt one of the most significant pieces of parliamentary legislation ever brought forward to the British people and within a few years was adopted by other countries throughout Europe and eventually the whole European Union.
One of the most significant sections of the act was that workplace employees were (and still are) able to elect from among themselves a person who then has legal protection in representing all employees in safety matters with the employer. That person must also be trained at the employer's expense in all safety matters relevant to that workplace.
Sadly had the foregoing legislation been in practise at the time of the Aberfan tragedy then the whole disaster would in all likelihood not have happened. Undoubtedly trained workplace safety reps on site would have realized that placing thousands of ton of coal slag on a mountainside with the corresponding side effect of blocking the streams that ran down that mountainside would cause huge instability at the slag heaps base, to the endangerment of all in the surrounding community. However, the legislation was not in place, and one hundred and forty four persons died that day, with one hundred and sixteen of them being primary school age children of five to seven years old.
In the above there are those that still criticize the principle of workplace safety and at times the way it is carried out. However, to those I would state, if you do not like what you see in your industry or workplace then “get involved”, put yourself forward as a safety rep and bring about change.
After all, nothing was ever achieved by “standing on the sidelines and moaning”.
Bill
First of all can I apologize to Amigacooke the OP of the thread for at times seemingly being somewhat off topic in this posting and previous one, but I feel it is very relevant to the subject.
In 1966 when the Aberfan tragedy occurred there was no Legislative requirement for any workplace to have a person(s) on a work site with direct legal responsibility for safety. Indeed, industrial safety was almost non existent in many trades with only a few industries covered by various working acts. Many forum Members above “a certain age” will like me remember the notice board in our workplaces being covered with such documents as the “Docks And Warehouses act 1923” or the “Factories Act 1925”.
The above acts and others similar did little in the way of bringing safety to employees, but gave details of when wages etc had to be paid and often only made recommendation on safety practises with no legal obligation on the employer to carry them out. However, following the Aberfan disaster and a number of other serious workplace incidents the UK government pushed by the then very strong Trade Union Movement began to bring forward new and comprehensive workplace safety legislation which culminated in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The above act took from start to finish over five years to arrive on the statute book due to opposition from employer organizations and time delaying tactics in Parliament by groups of MPs. However, the act did finally arrive, and I well remember as an HGV Driver in the road haulage industry at that time how things suddenly and dramatically changed in the way work was carried out. The acts introduction was without doubt one of the most significant pieces of parliamentary legislation ever brought forward to the British people and within a few years was adopted by other countries throughout Europe and eventually the whole European Union.
One of the most significant sections of the act was that workplace employees were (and still are) able to elect from among themselves a person who then has legal protection in representing all employees in safety matters with the employer. That person must also be trained at the employer's expense in all safety matters relevant to that workplace.
Sadly had the foregoing legislation been in practise at the time of the Aberfan tragedy then the whole disaster would in all likelihood not have happened. Undoubtedly trained workplace safety reps on site would have realized that placing thousands of ton of coal slag on a mountainside with the corresponding side effect of blocking the streams that ran down that mountainside would cause huge instability at the slag heaps base, to the endangerment of all in the surrounding community. However, the legislation was not in place, and one hundred and forty four persons died that day, with one hundred and sixteen of them being primary school age children of five to seven years old.
In the above there are those that still criticize the principle of workplace safety and at times the way it is carried out. However, to those I would state, if you do not like what you see in your industry or workplace then “get involved”, put yourself forward as a safety rep and bring about change.
After all, nothing was ever achieved by “standing on the sidelines and moaning”.
Bill
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After reading about this disaster, I can't help but be reminded of another disaster involving coal: The Centralia Mine Fire. While the death count was significantly lower, it also had an effect on everyone that lived there: The town they've spent their lives living in was wiped off the map. Also, if you find my post offensive in some way, my apologies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire
cyberdongreen
AKA: cyberdonblue
Tragedy is never offensive, Jordon, but always painful. For all the things that man thinks he has conquered, fire is not one of them. These underground fires rage at will in many countries and still we have no answer to them. How sad that many people have - and probably will in the future - suffer as a direct effect of these things.
Dave