What crime has the safety officer committed?

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Original post, December 1, 2016 – Haihai Anke. It has been a week since the accident in Fengcheng, Jiangxi. As the aftermath of the accident is being addressed steadily, its effects are gradually subsiding. The accident is still under investigation, but rumors have already spread that \"the Fengcheng police have arrested those responsible on charges of serious liability accidents,\" and among those arrested are the safety managers of the project. “In the event of a particularly serious accident related to work safety, safety managers are surely guilty of serious dereliction of duty! ”This logic seems quite reasonable – after all, both “safety accidents” and “safety management personnel” contain the word “safety”, don’t they? But is that really the case? No, logic that seems reasonable is often highly deceptive! As a small-scale safety professional, empty discussions about whether safety professionals should bear responsibility aren’t sufficient to convince people; let me tell you a short story. In the southern part of the ancient empire, there was a wealthy man named Zhangxi who was active in the area of Ganzhou; one of his business activities involved producing charcoal, which he then used for other purposes. This business is very hard work; Zhang Xi wants to find a family specialized in charcoal burning and take over that task. The Bei family from Hebei Province is a long-established family engaged in charcoal production. Although the Bei family has faced numerous accidents in recent years, its head has made good use of his strong market skills by contracting out this charcoal-production business. At the beginning of the project, in order to speed up the carbon-burning process and reduce costs, the head of the Beijia family failed to learn from previous accidents. He continued to build the carbon-burning facilities right next to the forest, setting up more than a dozen burning sites within a large area of woods; moreover, some of these burning sites were only three or four meters away from the piles of cut wood. \"Xiao Anquan\", the senior worker in charge of on-site safety at Bei’s company, raised doubts about the safety of such practices. He reported to Bei Yi, the person in charge of the site, that there was a thick layer of dry fallen leaves in the woods and around the piles of wood, and since the coal-burning sites were located so close to those piles, it was easy for the leaves and wood to catch fire, leading to forest fires with disastrous consequences. Bei Yi waved impatiently at Xiao Anquan: \"Only you would understand something like that; you’re so worried for no reason. What kind of big fire could possibly start? The charcoal pile is three meters away from the wood pile. I’ve been burning charcoal for twenty years, and I’ve never seen any big fire like the one you’re talking about.\" Besides, the small fire at the starting point was also extinguished. If the wood pile is too far away, it will delay the process of producing charcoal, and the Zhang family’s requirements won’t be met. Will you be responsible for that? ”Xiao Anquan wanted to say a few more words to Beiyi, but Beiyi had already turned away, impatiently. The charcoal-burning site has started operations, and Little Safety continues to do his best by conducting daily inspections and reminding each charcoal-burning team to be careful about fire prevention, as well as by promptly removing leaves from around the areas where charcoal is burned. Once, when Xiao Anquan passed by the coal-burning site number 1, he saw that the workers stacking the wood had done so less than three meters away from the burning area, and the leaves in the surrounding area hadn’t been cleared away. He immediately warned the person in charge of site number 1. “Hu Lai” always replied, “Okay, we’ll fix it right away!” ”But next time when Group 1 is checked again, everything will remain as before; the safety officer only has the power to give suggestions. With no other choice, the matter was reported to Bei Yi, who said, “They’re doing it for the sake of keeping things on schedule; they’ll be more careful next time.” ”One day, an unauthorized charcoal-burning site accidentally started a small fire; thanks to the diligent efforts of several laborers, the fire was extinguished in time, though those laborers suffered some minor injuries. To this end, Bei Yi convened all the long-term workers to hold a fire-fighting commendation ceremony, giving warm praise to the \"Fire-fighting Heroes!\" ”On the award ceremony day, the several reminders to Bei Yi regarding the minor safety violations committed by the Hu Lai team were left in the corner. Soon, after Hu Lai and the others recovered from their injuries, they returned to burn charcoal. During a routine safety inspection, it was discovered that Hu Lai had arbitrarily reduced the distance between the wood piles, stacking them just over one meter away from the fire. Xiao Anquan suppressed his extreme anger and once again warned Hu Lai that this would definitely lead to problems. Seeing Xiao Anquan’s face turn red from anger, Hu Lai said sarcastically, \"The Zhang family has expanded its business recently and needs more charcoal.\" We’re bringing the wood closer, isn’t that to speed things up? Yet even this pace still can’t meet the Zhang family’s requirements. If you fail to complete the task and things are delayed, it’s your responsibility, Xiao Anquan! This morning, Manager Bei Yi came to see me and told me to speed up the progress. He also praised me after seeing how I was working, saying that I was innovative and that this approach should be adopted on a wider scale. ”Xiao Anquan approached Bei Yi again, explaining the pros and cons, but Bei Yi turned a deaf ear. The Zhang family’s demand for charcoal was increasing steadily, yet even the North family, which operated at full capacity, was unable to meet the Zhang family’s needs for charcoal. The Zhang family summoned Bei Yi, Hu Lai, and the other supervisors in charge of the charcoal-burning sites to hold a meeting on improving efficiency, and introduced the slogan of \"working hard for 100 days.\" The meeting proposed to promote the advanced practices of the Hulai team, to make full use of the good weather to work hard for 100 days in order to increase charcoal production; however, the resolution made no mention of how to prevent fires. When the meeting’s decision was communicated to Xiao Anquan, he was completely stunned: doing this would definitely cause a fire. Anxiously, he went to Bei Yi in order to explain the consequences and persuade him that this decision could not be carried out for the safety of the charcoal burners. He had barely said a few words when Bei Yi interrupted him, criticizing Xiao Anquan sternly: \"How can you, Xiao Anquan, lack a sense of the bigger picture and keep causing trouble?\" ‘The ‘100-Day Sprint’ is a decision made by the top leaders of the Zhang and Bei families, the result of thorough deliberation and careful consideration. They’ve always acted like this, and nothing bad has happened. ”Little Safety once again turned away silently and helplessly. From that day on, Xiao Anquan worked like a madman, traveling back and forth between various charcoal-burning sites every day. He did his best to continue carrying out inspections and giving warnings. With his pale cheeks, chapped lips, disheveled hair, and hunched posture, Xiao Anquan no longer had the same vigor as before... On the 61st day after the \"100-Day Hard Work\" pledge, someone in one of the teams accidentally set leaves on fire and failed to extinguish it in time; the fire spread throughout the entire forest, resulting in the death of 74 charcoal workers trapped there... There was a great deal of uproar among the public, with various outlets reporting on this accident. Public outrage grew, and calls for severe punishment of those responsible and for improvements in the company’s safety measures became increasingly loud. The imperial authorities sent the Minister of Security to lead a team to conduct an investigation and handle the aftermath immediately. Representatives of the Empire, the Zhang family, and the Bei family held an emergency joint press conference, pledging to give an explanation to the people and to ensure that those responsible are severely punished. Bei Yi, Hu San, and Xiao Anquan didn’t see any of this; they were arrested and placed under criminal detention right away on charges of \"committing a serious liability accident.\" Dawn is approaching, and inside the iron cells of the prison, Xiao Anquan waits quietly for the accountability that is about to come… Accountability is a manifestation of the progress and civilization of our political system. “Within the scope of responsibilities and duties, one must take responsibility if problems arise. ”The primary prerequisite for accountability is the equivalence of rights and responsibilities; only by granting corresponding rights can corresponding responsibilities be held. In addition to punishing those who fail to fulfill their responsibilities, the purpose of holding people accountable for accidents is to make those who are still carrying out their tasks more vigilant, reflecting the expectations of decision-makers for the future. Therefore, holding account of “minor safety” issues is by no means a simple or isolated matter! Handling the ‘minor safety issues’ that arise after an accident in a proper and reasonable manner is not only directly related to countless such minor issues; it also has an indirect impact on the direction that safe production should take. It is indeed a test of the wisdom of decision-makers! If even such minor security issues are held accountable, then what better performance can decision-makers expect from other minor security aspects? The work of those responsible for safety is sometimes like a safety alarm: as soon as signs of insecurity appear, the alarm keeps sounding, yet those in charge ignore it; management even turns off the alarm. As a result, when a serious accident occurs, it is the safety alarm that is held accountable by decision-makers! The reason given is that both safety alarms and safety incidents contain the word “safety” – how absurd! “Why is the spring water so murky? It’s because polluted water flows in from its source! ”Without the indifference and tolerance of management, how could there be repeated mistakes on the part of those in charge of execution? In the end, when an accident occurs, what fault can the safety professionals have?