Safety's No Accident
'What are you doing to ensure it doesn't happen on your patch?' - is a stark question asked to British Rail managers about accidents in their area.
This training film opens with a resoundingly patronising scene as two male British Rail managers mock their female colleague for her efficiency. All three managers are the main characters in this dramatised safety awareness film and their taxi journey to a hotel for a meeting is the framing device of this video - whose intended audience was BR managers across Southern Region.
A disconcerting consequence of this focus upon managers is that it is the impact of accidents on the higher ranks that is foregrounded for much of the film, rather than their devastating effect on the families of staff killed or injured. Each manager has an interior monologue and reconstructed flashback to a previous accident in their area, culminating in them wishing to themselves that the latest accident isn't on their 'patch'.
The concluding section switches the focus to the devastated families with a powerful scene - again filmed from the perspective of a boss - as he knocks on a front door to deliver terrible news to the cheerful wife who initially believes she's welcoming a guest to the surprise party that she's throwing for her father in law.
This scene dramatises the bleak statistic at the close of the film: 'In 3 years... 51 BR employees have been killed in accidents of which 6 were from Southern Region... leaving 6 wives without husbands and 6 children without fathers'.
Safety video for railway workers about the fatal consequences of not following safety procedures.
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Health & Safety at Work
Work can be a matter of life and death. Explore how video helped spread the gospel of ‘Elf’n’Safety’ and improved Britain’s workplaces
As employers and government grew gradually but increasingly conscious of responsibilities towards the wellbeing of staff at work, so grew the role of film in the workplace. The moving image, with its emotional power and its ability to stick in the memory (especially when resorting to graphic imagery), was well placed to help get key health and safety messaging across both to employees, exhorted to follow safe practices, and to employers and managers encouraged to make conditions as safe as possible (or at least, as safe as the law requires of them).
And when things go wrong, the filmmaker may be there to help pick up the pieces, documenting or dramatising the consequences. In the era of videotape cameras and videotape viewing, late in the 20th century, the role of film in ‘Elf’n’Safety’ only grew bigger. This collection explores how it did it
16 videos in this collection
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2
Disability Discrimination Act: Act Now
3
Handle with Care
4
First Aid in the Laboratory: Chemical Spillages
5
Make Health Your Business
6
Health and Safety at Work for Enfield
7
Safety's No Accident
8
Illegal Manriding
9
The Self Rescuer
10
Contraband Kills
11
Fighting the Odds
12
Fire Service Demonstrate House Fire
13
Pointers To Good Safety Management: Caring Occupations
14
Pointers To Good Safety Management: Equestrian Work
15
Pointers To Good Safety Management: In a Garage
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