Human Error Archives - Page 2 of 9 - Situational Awareness Matters!™

Active Shooter Part 1 – Advice for Law Enforcement

1 Comment / Accountability, Article, Attitude, Building Construction, Communications, Competency, Complacency, Decision Making, Emotions, Excited, Expectations, Experience, Fear, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Intuition, Judgment, Leadership, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Muscle Memory, Neuroscience, Personnel location, Pressure, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, Situational awareness, Size Up, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Teamwork, Training, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

My students often ask me: “Mr. Moldenhauer, what’s the worst call cops could ever go on?” My response is always the same, an active shooter call. I have had my share of terrible calls in my career that will stay with me forever (i.e. suicides, child deaths, and fatal car accidents just to name […]

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Trooper Down on the Roadway. The Bob Bemis Story – SAM 387

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Automatic Action, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Complacency, Confusion, Decision Making, Disoriented, Expectations, Experience, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Judgment, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Pre Arrival Lens, Risk, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Task Fixation, Time Distortion, Training, Vigilance, Weather, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

This interview is with Bob Bemis, a retired Pennsylvania State Trooper who was struck and severely injured while attending to a vehicle fire on I-81 in eastern Pennsylvania. Sergeant (Ret.) Robert Bemis retired in 2017 as a Supervisor in the Operational Training Division at the Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey. With over 30 years

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Hands-Free Driving Laws are a Bad Idea

Leave a Comment / Article, Attention Management, Cognitive Memory, Confusion, Decision Making, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Information overload, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Multitasking, Neuroscience, Overload, Perception, Preoccupation, Risk, Safety, Selective Listening, Situational awareness / Rich Gasaway

Before you get too upset and refuse to read this article, I’ll ask you to give me just two minutes to explain the situational awareness lesson behind this statement. The first premise is: We must acknowledge (and accept) that it is easy for drivers to get distracted and have their situational awareness impacted while talking

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Twelve tips to improve situational awareness – SAM 383

Leave a Comment / Accountability, Attitude, Auditory exclusion, Close Call, Cognitive Memory, Command Support, Communications, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Hyper Vigilance, Information overload, Interruptions, Line of Duty Death, Long-Term Memory, Mindfulness, Miscommunications, Mission, Mission Myopia, Multitasking, Overload, Progress Reports, Radios, Repetition, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Selective Listening, Sensory Conflict, Short Term Memory, Situational awareness, Size Up, Staffing, Task Fixation, Task Saturation, Teamwork, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, a special guest (Santa) presents twelve tips to improve situational awareness while working in high-risk, high consequence environments. Merry Christmas everyone! I know everyone’s feeling particularly festive this time of year and ole Santa is feeling the situational awareness love. Surely, you’ve heard of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” – You know

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Improving Responder Safety on the Roadway: The John Gonzalez Interview -SAM 380

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automation, Close Call, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Equipment, Expectations, Human Behavior, Human Error, Mindfulness, Mission, Mission Myopia, Personnel location, Prediction, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Teamwork, Technology, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

This episode is an interview with John Gonzalez from Florian Re Appratus, a company focused on improving responder safety on roadway incidents. John Gonzalez is a past District Chief of Toms River Fire District 1 in Ocean County, NJ and has been an active volunteer firefighter for over 30 years. Chief Gonzalez served as a

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When Training Goes Wrong: The Stan Mettinger Story – SAM 378

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Close Call, Competency, Decision Making, Equipment, Expectations, Experience, Human Error, Incompetence, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Near Miss, Personal Protective Equipment, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Stress, Tacit Knowledge, Task Fixation, Teamwork, Training, Tunnel Vision, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

This episode shares the story of a firefighter who was burned during a vehicle fire training scenario. Stan Mettinger was setting up a training scenario that involved setting vehicles on fire. He was using diesel fuel to ignite hay inside the vehicle when the vapors flashed and set Stan on fire resulting in first, second

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Simulations Improve Situational Awareness – SAM 371

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attention Management, Automatic Action, Benchmarks, Cognitive Memory, Communications, Competency, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Pattern Matching, Pre Arrival Lens, Prediction, Risk, Risk Assessment, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Simulation, Situational awareness, Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines, Technology, Training, Workload Management, Worksheets / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we discuss how simulations can improve situational awareness. Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In neuroscience, this is called projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or project, the future events. This is accomplished through mental

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How Expectations Influence Situational Awareness – SAM 370

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Cognitive Memory, Decision Making, Expectations, Experience, Explicit Knowledge, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Intuition, Judgment, Mental Models, Mindfulness, Neuroscience, Progress Reports, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Shared Mental Models, Situational awareness, Situational Readiness, Tacit Knowledge / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we discuss how the role expectations play in helping developing situational awareness and influencing decision making. Your highest level of situational awareness is formed when you are able to make accurate predictions about future events. In neuroscience, this is called projection and it simply means you are able to predict, or

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Complacency – SAM 369

Leave a Comment / Assumptions, Attitude, Bravado, Complacency, Crew Resource Management, Culture, Decision Making, Defiance, Denial, Ego, Error Creep, Expectations, Experience, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Goals, Habits, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Invincible, Judgment, Leadership, Mind Drift, Mindfulness, Mission, Mission Myopia, Neuroscience, Over Confident, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Routines, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Task Fixation, Vigilance, Workload Management / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we preview the complacency chapter from the book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Complacency is a dangerous affliction and a very challenging barrier to situational awareness for workers in high-risk environments. When a worker becomes complacent they let their guard down. What does that mean? It’s a cliché

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Distractions and Interruptions – SAM 368

Leave a Comment / Attention Management, Checklists, Decision Making, Disoriented, Distractions and Interruptions, Expectations, Firefighter Situational Awareness, Human Behavior, Human Error, Human Factors, Interruptions, Judgment, Lost Focus, Mindfulness, Motion Induced Blindness, Neuroscience, Overload, Overwhelm, Personnel location, Preoccupation, Risk, Risk Assessment, Risk Management, Safety, SAMatters Radio, Situational awareness, Task Fixation, Technology, Vigilance / Rich Gasaway

In this episode, we preview the distractions and interruptions chapter from the book, How Smart Workers Use Situational Awareness to Improve Safety. Along a worker’s journey toward envisioning, developing, and implementing their plan to guide their (hopefully) successful outcome, they are likely to encounter two situational awareness barriers that can quickly derail their focus. Distractions

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