Stickers (concerning foreign object damage,
tower signals, and so forth)
Safety inspection checklists
Letters, memoranda, and messages
Units of the operating forces receive mishap
prevention information directly from fleet and type
commanders. These advisories can take the following
forms:
Standard organizational manuals
Fleet and force commanders regulations
Fleet and force commanders technical notes
Force commanders lessons learned
Advisory messages calling attention to recurring
mishaps and to new procedures that will reduce
or better control hazardous conditions
Conventional and nuclear weapons
notes/manuals
Engineering notes containing policy and
technical information
Nuclear propulsion notes
Naval reactors technical bulletins
Additionally, higher authority distributes
information to the operating forces through other
publications and periodicals.
The Naval Safety Center receives and analyzes all
mishap and injury reports submitted by aviation, ship,
submarine, and shore units. It indexes the information
from these reports under headings such as phase of
operation, material failure, personnel action, or cause
factors. It also incorporates the information into a
computerized data bank from which it can retrieve
mishap and injury records involving any specified set of
circumstances. In that way the Naval Safety Center can
monitor mishap trends and pinpoint areas requiring
corrective action. The Naval Safety Center also
maintains operational or exposure data, such as the
Individual Flight Activity Report and the Diving Log. It
combines information from these documents with
mishap data to determine the significance of factors
involved in mishaps.
The Naval Safety Center conducts safety surveys
upon the request of a unit commanding officer. It then
uses the survey information to identify and analyze
hazards and mishap potential situations to determine
preventive action. Most mishaps result from actions
incorrectly performed by people who lack training,
knowledge, or motivation or who fail to recognize the
hazards and the risks involved. To reduce mishaps,
personnel must eliminate existing hazards and learn to
recognize possible hazards.
The Naval Safety Center provides a team of officers
and chief petty officers to conduct the safety surveys.
Most of these personnel have been associated with
mishap prevention for a number of years and are experts
in their fields. They are an invaluable source of
information and guidance in the field of mishap
prevention. The team conducts informal surveys and
provides the results only to the commanding officer of
the unit involved and to the databank at the Naval Safety
Center.
The Accident Prevention Education Project was
established at the Naval Safety Center in March 1974.
This project is designed to increase the awareness of all
naval personnel in mishap prevention. The specific tasks
of the project are as follows:
Review existing course material to determine
what mishap prevention training is available
Help to develop mishap prevention training
packages tailored to each course reviewed
Help CNET carry out mishap prevention training
on a Navywide basis
Develop a procedure that allows the Naval Safety
Center to take part in technical audits of training
courses for the purpose of evaluating mishap
prevention content
The Naval Safety Center provides guidance for
incorporating mishap prevention lessons learned into
the construction of new ships and for improving and
converting safety systems aboard ships. The center uses
the safety recommendation (SAFEREC) system, ship
safety information bank, mishap and injury reports,
casualty reports (CASREPs), and the maintenance data
system (MDS) reports to gather data. It recommends
shipboard and system safety improvements based on
that data.
SAFETY AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Without question, safety and occupational health
(SOH) and good management go hand in hand. When
one is pursued to the disadvantage of the other, the total
outcome becomes less effective and less efficient. A
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