Following a white van home one night, Mark Roden saw something that made him stop and pull the driver over. He wonders what made him behave in that way.
Driving home the other night I was following a large white van, as we turned onto a small A road one of the rear doors swung open. Inside the van were tools, stepladders and what looked like building materials. Concerned that the contents would fall into the road and cause damage to my vehicle (and maybe myself) I checked to see if it was clear to overtake.
As I was readying to overtake I flashed my headlights to gain the driver’s attention. I overtook the vehicle, slowed down and indicated and the van pulled in to a layby behind me. I drive a white four-wheel drive so he might have thought I was the police. I got out of my car and told the driver about the rear doors – he was very grateful, probably having readied himself for a telling off or perhaps a road-rage rant.
On the drive home I thought about this. We all accept that having a good safety culture at work is important and that to achieve this we need to emulate the right behaviours. I always think of behaviours as being actions that are observable whether intentional or unintentional – a pragmatist rather than a psychologist’s view, I know.
How would I define my behaviour in this instance and why did I behave in this way?
Two familiar models of an organisation’s safety culture are those of DuPont – the Bradley Curve and from the Keil Centre – Safety Culture Maturity model. Both have proved very useful to many organisations. In the Bradley model I displayed ‘dependence’ by taking action to overtake the vehicle, looking after my own safety. Then by taking the time to stop and tell the van driver (he was unaware of the open door) I moved down the curve into the ‘interdependence’ zone, I was taking care of someone else’s safety (or in this case loss). Similarly in the Keil Centre model I was perhaps at maturity level 3 – ‘involving’ accepting personal responsibility for myself as I decided to overtake, then moving into level 4 – ‘co-operating’ as I warned the driver of the danger of losing his tools or potentially causing a road traffic accident should the tools fall into the road.
It’s obviously very important that, as safety professionals, we lead by example and act as we wish our organisations to act. I have been championing behavioural safety for a while now and I think this has had an influence on the way I act, inside and outside of work, subconsciously not as a positive intent. To achieve this consistently across an organisation is a challenge and it can be a long journey, but without a focus on behaviour, world class performance will simply not be achieved.
As a final thought I did wonder if I would have stopped the vehicle and spoken to the driver if I was in a rush. I’d like to say an unequivocal yes but I don’t really know, and this is the challenge I guess: can we guarantee we will all act consistently in every situation?
References:
Keil Centre Safety Culture Maturity Model
Mark Roden is speaking at the IOSH conference on the 16 June at 15.10.
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i hope you didnt have your clip board out whilst you were driving,
you put yourself at great risk of stopping a strange vehicle at night???? did you not consider the risk of being thumped?
unbelievable
Safety on the road is a highly important issue; with vehicles moving at a fast pace and large vans often containing expensive equipment and materials, I believe most drivers would be grateful to be stopped if their doors were not shut correctly/ the contents of the van were at risk. Furthermore, where safety is concerned you cannot simply refrain from challenging unsafe behaviour for fear of your challenge not being received well! If you allow unsafe behaviour such at this to continue and an accident happens, then you are partly to blame for the outcome. If your attitude towards safety… Read more »
I followed a white van from Alton to Basingstoke with a similar issue, though the contents were boxes rather than building equipment and it was the rear door that flapped open and closed depending on which direction the bends in the road are. The driver was obviously not ever referring to his wing mirrors as he would have seen the door continually opening and closing. I dread to think what the ride was like. For me the best option was to drop right back and not try to overtake. The road in question is highly dangerous, twisting and rises and… Read more »
Mark, you did exactly the right thing – well done to you for not only being concerned for your own safety but also for the safety of other road users and for the loss likely to be sustained by the driver. Not taking action as suggested by someone else would have given us an insight into what you really believe and what is really important to you i.e. having recognised a significant risk you would make sure you were okay but show a complete disregard for anyone else – how selfish, how sad. If any safety professional had seen that… Read more »