Why Safety Deserves a Capital “S”
Have you ever noticed that the names of people, cities, countries, months, days and important places all start with a capital letter? Titles, car types and most abbreviations for words are honored with a capital letter. In short, we tend to use capitals to denote important words.
So why not a big, for all to see, capital “S” for Safety? The only logical answer I can find is that it is not traditional to do so. If that is the case, then it’s time we updated the tradition.
Why shouldn’t Safety have a capital S? It has never been so important as now with so many lives depending on it. I’ve given it a capital for years except when Microsoft Word drops it back down to a small s when my back is turned.
I can remember not that many years ago, when Safety was for wimps or mama’s boys as they were called back then, because real men just used their common sense to survive and didn’t need silly Safety rules to dictate what they could or couldn’t do. Sure, some of those without common sense were killed, but it was survival of the fittest and good for the gene pool. Then, organizations like the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began to make Safety rules. Please note that these Safety organizations were given capital letters, but not Safety unless part of the title.
The FAA, CAA, ICAO, TC, etc. also got into the Safety business and with regulations and rules untold thousands of lives have been saved, but no one thought to recognize Safety for the importance in saving lives that it deserves.
Safety is an important factor in a person’s life. Today, they won’t allow you to take a child home from the hospital without a Safety approved car seat.
Lee Iacocca thought he was right at the time when he said, “safety doesn’t sell cars” in 1971 and refused to authorize a $1.00 per-car fix to the Pinto gas tank because it would be cheaper to pay out for the odd person who would get burned in a rear-end car crash. (More than 500 people would suffer that fate, with 27 being fatal in Pinto rear-end collision accidents). Iacocca was so very wrong when people realized that the Pinto was unsafe. They went out of production in 1980, even with the fix. So, the Pinto earned a capital, but not Safety that today sees cars with shoulder harness seatbelts, airbags, a collapsible steering wheel, crumple zones, reinforced doors that don’t jam, etc., etc.
Today, Safety sells and is expected. No company will remain in the aviation business for long without Safety. It’s time that Safety receives the importance and respect it deserves. Safety deserves a capital S. I, for one, will spell it that way — and if you are serious about Safety, I urge you to do the same.
Gordon Dupont worked as a special programs coordinator for Transport Canada from March 1993 to August 1999. He was responsible for coordinating with the aviation industry in the development of programs that would serve to reduce maintenance error. He assisted in the development of Human Performance in Maintenance (HPIM) Parts 1 and 2. The “Dirty Dozen” maintenance Safety posters were an outcome of HPIM Part 1.
Prior to working for Transport, Dupont worked for seven years as a technical investigator for the Canadian Aviation Safety Board (later to become the Canadian Transportation Safety Board). He saw first hand the tragic results of maintenance and human error.
Dupont has held the position of principal of an aviation vocational training school as well as chief engineer for a corporate turbine aircraft.He has been an aircraft maintenance engineer and commercial pilot in Canada, the United States and Australia.
He is the past president and founding member of the Pacific Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association. He is a founding member and a board member of the Maintenance And Ramp Safety Society (MARSS).Dupont, who is often called “The Father of the Dirty Dozen,” has provided human factors training around the world. He retired from Transport Canada in 1999 and is now a private consultant.
Dupont has worked on and held signing authority on aircraft from the Piper Cub on floats through to the Boeing 74 . He also owns a pile of hangar-stored parts that will one day fly again as a Stearman (if and when he retires).He is interested in any work that will serve to make our industry Safer. Visit www.system-safety.comfor more information.