WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
The industry backlash itself showed a tendency to assume the worst after an accident, and a rush to blame some - one—in this case, the builder. The larger issue, both Domeck and Stewart said, is a reluctance to share incident information, and to then act upon it (i.e., changing procedures, prac - tices, and requirements in standards). The industry would greatly benefit from openly discussing incidents and collabo - rating on ways to reduce them in the fu- ture, they believe. And that will require a major change in industry culture. That culture, they said, has been to assume that “we won’t make the same kind of mistakes other people do,” and continue to do things as they’ve always been done. “My hope is that we don’t repeat the same type of accidents,” Domeck said. “If we start talking about these things, I think we’ll see less and less repeats of the same type of accidents, both in construction and operations.” Sharing this type of information and creating a culture of safety in the industry, he said, will “affect the way the standards are written, and the way training is conducted.”
These notes, written by ERi owner Todd Domeck immediately after the accident, show the order of priority for him at the time. While he anticipated the industry backlash, it came a lot quicker than he expected.
THE ACCIDENT PROJECT
She pointed out that such a system is common in other industries and activi- ties that involve an element of risk, such as rock climbing and aviation, “where they understand the value of sharing this information. “The priority in those situations isn’t defending yourself and your actions. The priority is protecting people in the future. And we as an industry have not gotten comfortable enough with sharing to move those efforts forward. “It’s sad that it’s 2024 and we’re still struggling to make progress on this in our industry,” said Stewart. Wanted: a project champion. Both Domeck and Stewart regret that they have not been able to get The Accident Project moving forward. They lack the
time and resources needed, and are looking for a means to accomplish that.
To back up their incident-sharing advo - cacy and follow the example of other in - dustries, Domeck and Stewart launched The Accident Project (theaccidentproject. com) at this past ACCT conference. The intent is to provide a space for industry members—including operators, trainers, inspectors, engineers, and others, not just builders—to report incidents and share the lessons learned. “We, along with a lot of other peo - ple that we respect in the industry, have been advocating for a voluntary accident reporting mechanism where people can understand how and why accidents happen so we can all collec - tively do our best to prevent them,” Stewart said.
“We’ve had conversations with a couple of organizations to see if there’s some place that we can find to house it. It needs to be with someone who’s relatively independent, and who really understands how to collect, analyze, and distribute that sort of data,” such as a university, she said. They also acknowledge that it will take a good deal of effort to change the cul - ture and launch such a program. “Talking about accidents, sharing infor - mation and trying to help each other grow, it makes you vulnerable to some criticism,” Domeck said. “Honestly, I don’t like to share, either. I didn’t want to do this interview. But we all need
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