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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on November 8, 2013 at 6:44pm

Just because the alarm was disabled doesn't mean the FFs weren't belted. The whole story and potential reasoning for this should be looked into. I can say in one of our newer engines the seatbelt alarm would go off when a FF would turn to look forward and would not reset when he turned back around. It took some time for the mfg to be able to get a repair for this and having a seatbelt alarm consistently going off can interfere with hearing the radio.

 

If there were several of these rigs that had malfunctioning alarms, then that is something the management needs to deal with to get the proper fixes in place. Perhaps the time frame to get those fixes was not happening and like I said, a constant seatbelt alarm, even with buckled FFs, is a safety issue. Just because alarms were disbled doesn't mean this was done by crews so they could move around freely. If there were malfunction problems, then there should not be any discipline to any crewmembers in such rigs.

 

As far as this accident is concerned, this is a matter of operating without Due Regard.

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Permalink Reply by Norm Tindell on November 9, 2013 at 9:04am

Building on one of John's comments, I wonder what, if any, knowledge the apparatus division (the shop) had regarding those systems' status, since there were allegedly several. Therein lies part of the investigation. Also, the leadership (the chiefs) bear some responsibility.

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Permalink Reply by John Gallagher on November 10, 2013 at 12:24pm

Again it comes down to having a policy but not enforcing it. The officers FIRST duty is to the safety of his crew. Each rig should be inspected at the beginning of the tour, any malfunctioning equipment should be noted and reported. The officer on duty should, whenever the rig leaves qtrs, make a visual inspection to ensure that ALL members are belted. You can't wait untill you have an accident and then claim the equipment wasn't working properly. As for punishment, it seems to me that there are other options than demotions and suspensions. Loss of vacation days wouldn't punish the members families as loss of pay would.

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