Read enough of the news, you are bound to see stories in which an event causes significant harm. One such recent event involved a scaffolding collapse, claiming the lives of three and injuring two more.
Read the initial report above, you might also be led to believe that the scaffold failed suddenly and without warning. Those sorts of events do happen, albeit rarely.
But delve into their causes, high-profile failures often come with some warning; signs found well in advance that conditions were tough, or there were problems.
In this event, the report indicated that:
- Simultaneous crane operations were taking place
- The event happened just before 2 a.m.
- Hundreds of workers were on-site 24 hours a day
As to what went wrong, according to a subsequent report, “There was a load on the crane that evidently failed, the load fell and hit the platform scaffold and caused that scaffold to tilt”
It may seem like Monday morning quarterbacking, but a fair question to always ask after the fact is, “Were there warning signs that, if taken seriously, could have helped prevent this incident?”
That question raises a second question about conditions and minor events with little in the way of consequences: does the absence of consequences mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously?
The answer is obvious, isn’t it? Just because nothing bad has happened doesn’t mean something bad couldn’t have happened, or won’t happen in the future.
That question is easy. The hard question is how to decide what minor events or conditions need to be taken seriously.
Paul Balmert
June 2025
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