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Saw a lockout tagout violation at the San Diego shipyard and it bugged me all week
I was down at the BAE Systems yard last Tuesday picking up some gear from a buddy, and I watched a tender pop a valve cover without checking the pressure gauge first. The supervisor was twenty feet away on his phone. I get that we all cut corners sometimes, but that's how you get a face full of seawater at 30 feet. Has anyone else noticed safety getting sloppy on the big commercial yards lately?
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the_fiona1mo ago
Holy crap, a supervisor on his phone twenty feet away while a guy is about to turn a valve on a pressurized line? That's not just cutting corners, that's basically asking for a call to the Coast Guard. I've seen what happens when a fitting lets go, you get a shockwave that can snap your wrist before you even feel the water. A tender might think he's being fast and efficient, but one pop and he's eating metal shavings and saltwater at the same time. The big yards are getting away with murder because the old timers who'd yell about it are retiring.
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harper9141mo ago
Thing nobody talks about is how the liability insurance rates are going to spike for these yards if someone finally gets hurt bad enough to sue. That'll get management off their phones real quick.
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the_piper1mo ago
That lockout tagout stuff is no joke. Next time you see a guy skip the pressure check, just walk up and say "hey man, I'd rather you blow steam at me than lose your face." Most tenders appreciate a heads up from someone who's been there. I've seen yard management get real skittish about safety audits and liability, so the supervisors are usually just waiting for someone to force them to pay attention. If you gently point it out to the worker first, he might fix it before you have to go to his boss. That keeps the peace and still gets the valve checked. The big yards have gotten way too comfortable letting young guys run with bad habits.
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