Which Other Guy?
Winter Storm Leon would have simply been winter weather if it had passed a few hundred miles north of his actual path. Those who lived through this storm, no matter where we originally hail from, witnessed the South’s inexperience with snow. It wasn’t as bad as Atlanta, but my area was largely shut down for a couple of days and snow was piled up along the roads in many places. In fact, we still have piles of grey in some parking lots.
From CrewResourceManagement.net via AviationKnowledge.wikidot.com
Why in the world am I writing about this? I was rear ended. Nobody was hurt and the Mercedes E55 AMG that hit me is in a lot worse condition than my Toyota. Again, why am I writing about a car accident on an aviation safety blog? The way the situation unfolded got me thinking about how decisions made by the “other guy” can lead to accidents.
Without boring you with an accident report style history of my drive, the snow was plowed from my lane only so far and drivable space ended abruptly in a pile of white stuff. The vehicle in front of me came to a stop, I stopped, and the car behind me did not, until it tried to occupy the same space as my van. The “other guy” failed to stop. And? Happens every day on the road, right?
Hold on, do you see any more “other guys” in this scenario?
1) What about the guy who stopped plowing the lane? Why did he stop at that spot? Maybe he was running out of gas because he failed to fill up when he had the chance. Maybe it was the end of his shift and …
2) … the next guy did not get the word to finish the lane.
3) Perhaps his boss told him to. Did he get called to another area because of some other accident or problem?
4) Perhaps city policy said to only plow to that point.
I made a pledge not to get overly academic at SaferAviator, but this screams Swiss Cheese Model and Human Factors Accident Classification System (HFACS). If you are not familiar with these, I encourage you to spend a few minutes gaining a working knowledge the Swiss Cheese Model. HFACS is far more involved. I’ve provided a link to a HFACS 50,000-foot view, if cheese is not enough to feed your curiosity. This HFACS slideshow is lengthy, but very good.
Part 2 will discuss a training area from my flight instructor days and how we mitigated decisions made by the “other guys.”
Links
Aviation Knowledge WikiDot
http://aviationknowledge.wikidot.com/aviation:accident-causation-model
FAA Human Factors Research Portal
https://www.hf.faa.gov/HFACS/
https://www.hf.faa.gov/hfacs/Portals/0/HFACS%20Presentation.ppt