Incidents on job sites can cause pain and mental anguish, disrupt project timelines, escalate costs and have lasting repercussions on an employer’s safety performance record. When an incident occurs, company management and safety professionals must respond in a timely manner. Typically, the first responsive action is obtaining detailed information about the incident as quickly as possible. Ask about any injuries that may have occurred and their severity, as well as whether the injured party is still on the scene or has been transported to a medical facility. Find out if emergency responders and law enforcement have been notified if they aren’t already present at the scene. The health and safety of an employer’s human assets should be the…

“Summit fever” is a mountaineering term that describes the drive or compulsion of a climber to reach the summit of a mountain no matter what the cost. The climber has invested time, energy and resources into their goal, and by the time they have the summit of the mountain in their sight, they are so close to accomplishing the feat that they allow their judgment to be impaired. They make choices toward the top of the mountain that they almost certainly would not have made earlier in their journey. There are two factors that contribute to this impaired judgment: physical environment and psychological impact. How a climber responds to both can be the difference between life and death. Both the environment and the physical state of the climb…