Kickstart: Pay attention to the 'near misses'

We're all probably familiar with the saying about how if you watch for the little things, the big things take care of themselves. Well that's true in injury prevention, too.

As Steve Toloken writes, the National Safety Council's Work to Zero 2050 initiative focuses not just on the incidents that cause injuries, but the near misses that could have been much worse.

NSC said that for every major workplace injury, there are 29 minor injuries and 300 incidents that didn't result in injuries but could have.

"If organizations focus on preventing the noninjury incidents, then the minor and major injuries will decrease as well," NSC said in its February "Safety Technology 2020" report, issued as part of the initiative.

So that means keeping track of slipups such as a failure to follow lockout/tag-out rules.

The good news is that injury rates are down in the plastics industry, but smaller companies typically lag behind larger firms in safety, perhaps because they lack the funding to have full-time safety officers. But that doesn't mean there aren't little things they can do. Check out Steve's report for more details.

Our sister paper Automotive News just wrapped up a four-week series of stories on how the auto industry responded during early days of the pandemic.

The "A Call To Action" series has covered the work by automakers, suppliers and dealers alike and wraps up with stories about workers volunteering to 3D print shields, sew masks and even provide private planes to fly personal protective equipment to health care workers.

You can find all of the stories here.

Let's hear it for the Kansas City Royals — or at least the person responsible for making the hard plastic cutouts of fans that are appearing at the Royals' ballpark during home games.

I wrote previously about the program, which allows fans to donate to a "fanbassador" program to have their likeness added to a cutout, with donations going to local charities.

Fans of late-'80s comedies may recognize the "fan" sitting behind home plate. Yes, that's Bernie Lomax — or at least the actor Terry Kiser playing the role of Bernie Lomax — from Weekend At Bernie's, the movie in which two young white-collar workers pretend their dead boss is alive and kicking throughout the, well, weekend at Bernie's beach home. (Hey, not every '80s movie plot is a classic.)

"Bernie's" appearance at the ballgame was noted on Twitter by @Cap_Kaveman with a simple "Oh my god" caption.

Bernie isn't alone though. Scan the stands and you may also see a storm trooper from "Star Wars."