Elf n Safety

[John Ashworth]

Some comments on "Elf n safety" from a thread on the uk.railways newsgroup:

Not content with putting signs all around the stairs at Glasgow Queen Street Low Level reminding passengers to hold the handrail and not run, First Scotrail have now gone one better and installed a whole new PA system over each flight of stairs (4 in total) which constantly repeats a message along the lines of "Customers are reminded to hold the handrail at all times when using the stairs" Even better than that, the volume doesn't adjust according to background noise, so when the station is busy, it's barely audible (so anyone trying to understand what it's saying will be distracted) and when the station is quiet, you can hear the PA on each of the sets of stairs talking about holding onto handrails, all slightly out of sync with each other.

[Maybe this is a use for our new PA system which we can instal once we've installed our new generator in the coaches? "Passengers are reminded not to fall of the steps when disembarking from the train"]

Haven't they got anything more worthwhile to spend the money on? Like the trains

Chances are it's the Insurers who are demanding this rather then any Heath and Safety body. I suspect most cases of Heath and Safety madness are probably caused by an insurer refusing to pay out on a claim.

Bloody Hell a voice of reason. As a Elf'n'safety professional I never tell anyone what they should do. I assess the risk as requested. It's the lawyers and insurers that make the silly demands.

... or pillocks who can read the instructions but not interpret/understand them such as the untrained persons dealing with Elfin Safety in two voluntary organisations to which I belong who are constantly telling voluntary members that they are liable to this, that and the other if they don't obey the daftest of the rules, totally unaware that as the ordinary members are neither employees nor controlling work and/or premises that it is in fact their own delicate pieces of anatomy which will be on the chopping block when the ordure hits the ventilating equipment.

What about the effects of 'ElfandSafety' on people like me who have their blood pressure increased by such nonsense!!

Or the poor sods on the gate line who have to listen to that message coming from each set of stairs, every 5-10 seconds, all day, every day!

It's those "where there's blame there's a claim" boys again. Though unfortunately they appear to have developed their argument further - if someone falls over on the stairs and they weren't holding on to the handrail, it's not their own fault but the fault of the staircase's owner for not providing a warning notice and perhaps even a PA announcement. Perhaps some of these insurers should actually fight it out through the courts and win so as to establish some case law that mitigates against ludicrous claims for compensation. It's rights and responsibilities innit - the right to climb the stairs, the responsibility to look after yourself. Should one trip over and break one's arm it's not as though one has to pay to get it fixed up again unlike in some places. I'm quite happy with that deal, and I'll remain happy with it even after I break my arm having tripped on the stairs.

IMX most cases of elfandsafetyism are caused by a non-H&S trained, not-too-bright manager pre-empting Assorted Terrible Disasters they've read about in the papers...

Someone was telling me today that they had some slip of a girl health 'n saftee advisor assess them, and they are now no longer "safe" changing a wheel on their organisation's vehicles. Wherever they are should this happen now they are to call out the AA or else!......

Which is why so few people are being killed these days by HGV wheels coming off after drivers ignored the torque settings and over-tightened them. In the 1980s wheels coming off was almost a weekly occurrence along the M4. I attended two fatalities and know of four more where such wheels had hit cars. In all cases the wheel nuts had fractured the wheels through over-tightening. Happens on cars as well, especially alloy wheels. Having seen one numpty this evening at dusk on the M4, back to the traffic just on the edge of lane 1 trying to change a wheel, this "slip of a girl" probably knows a bit more than you give her credit for.