RI 2557 Industrial Accidents In The California Oil Fields

"Introduction**The progress of the ""Safety First"" movement in the oil fields of California during the past few years has been remarkably rapid. It has been generally concede by those who have learned to value the life and limbs of their employees, that safety is essential to efficiency and no company that has a high accident rate can be considered an efficient organization. Accidents have a destructive effect on the morale of any body of workers and cause disorganization and delays.The increasing danger to life and limb involved in the drilling for and the production of oil and gas, has become so great that it is clearly evident that everything possible must be done to keep it within the narrowest possible limits.There is a tendency toward carelessness, especially by men who are employed in hazardous occupations. This is brought about by the familiarity of the risk under which they are working and in no industry is this more forcibly exemplified than in the oil fields. Men have performed the same or similar duties for many years and have worked around similar hazards and unprotected machinery until many have can entire disregard for the dangers surrounding then. Very often familiarity with a hazard occasions a contempt for that hazard which only too often results disastrously."