'Quest for Zero' safety mishaps begins off duty

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Regina Rector
  • 446th Airlift Wing Safety

Summer offers plenty of choices for recreational activities. Whichever you indulge in, ensure you make sound choices. Risk Management for off-duty activities is Air Force Reserve Command's main focus over the next several months.  We'll focus on three categories: sports, recreation and individual fitness, private motor vehicles, and slips, trips and falls. 

Most summer activities and leisure fall into sports, recreation, and individual fitness. Basketball has led the way for injuries in this category for the last five years. Most injuries are from continuous jumping, twisting ankles, and overly aggressive play. Ankle braces can reduce your chance of ankle injury. You can apply the "accept no unnecessary risk" principle by ensuring you're situational awareness of how aggressive you play.

Summer travel can provide a break in your daily routine.  Integrate Risk Management into your trip planning to optimize accident prevention.  A great tool for applying Risk Management to your planning is TRIPS (Travel Risk Planning System), which educates you on the hazards of driving drowsy, under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and distracted.  It also evaluates your choices to ensure they're sound.

Summer days at the house can range from leisure time to home improvement projects. Be vigilant with preventing slips, trips, and falls while working on projects.  Real-time Risk Management should be practiced by asking:

· What's going to hurt you? 
· How often is it going to hurt you?
· What are you going to do about it?

Once you have a fix accomplished, make sure it works. Risk Management Principles:

1. Accept no unnecessary risk.
2. Make risk decisions at the appropriate level.  
3. Integrate Risk Management into operations, activities and planning at all levels.
4. Apply the process cyclically and continuously.

Air Force Chief of Ground Safety, Bill Parsons said "Most mishaps are preventable, and mishap prevention requires doing the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is as simple as stepping up and stepping in when we see something that doesn't look right. That alone can avert a potential disaster." 

Whatever you're summer plans entail, enjoy yourself in your recreational activities, traveling, and time at home, and may proper planning help your summer plans go well.