Photo By Joel Diller | Maria Kriaraki, deputy director, Safety Office, Naval Support Activity Souda Bay,...... read more read more
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Risk is a situation involving exposure to danger and the possibility that something unpleasant or unwelcome will happen. Safety is the condition of being protected from something that causes danger, risk or injury. In life, people draw upon their experience and knowledge to make judgements about the risks they experience. The more experience and knowledge, the greater the ability to make good judgements.
In the same way, the Naval Support Activity Souda Bay Safety Office works to reduce the risk to the installation’s people and property to preserve its capability to fulfill the mission. They are in the business of preventing accidents. Experience is documented in training systems, standard operating procedures and after-action reports. Knowledge is gained through inspection programs and safety investigations.
Facility Inspections On this day, Garvin Purtteman, Safety director, and Maria Kriaraki, deputy Safety director, perform a general facility inspection at the Fleet’s Inn Galley. But before visiting to the facility, they begin their inspection at the Safety Office.
“The actual inspection is not only present at the facility, but it is also at [the Safety office] where we look at the processes, the training and whatever else the department has,” said Kriaraki.
Kriaraki said they also review the department’s instructions, regulations, codes and guides and any previous deficiencies recorded in the Navy’s Enterprise Safety Application Management System (ESAMS). “We look at different deficiencies that were there previously to try to see if they are going to be there again.”
At the Galley, Purtteman and Kriaraki said they are looking for anything that could create a type of hazard, such as electrical systems, heat sources, causes for slips, trips or falls, and the Lock Out-Tag Out procedures.
The Galley’s manager meets the Safety Office inspectors and together they walk through the facility, looking for potential hazards. They open electrical panels, check kitchen shelving units for sturdiness, review hazardous material checklists, test alarm systems and the walk-in freezer’s door latch.
Any discrepancies found during the inspection are provided to the facility manager and annotated in ESAMS. Once the discrepancy is fixed, the Safety Office returns to inspect it and closes it out in the system.
Keeping Team Souda Safe
According to the National Safety Council, fall-related injuries account for 32 percent of all preventable, nonfatal injuries. Purtteman said that injuries resulting from slips, trips or falls are also common with Team Souda. The Safety Office participated in an installation-wide effort with Public Works and several other departments to identify high-risk areas on the installation.
The result was a Pedestrian Safety-Related Improvement project where the Public Works Department is making repairs and improvements across the installation. Lt. Cdr. Ryan White, public works officer, said their scope of work includes: repairing damaged sidewalks; repainting crosswalks, street lines, no parking zones, and curbs for better visibility; adding new crosswalks; installing railings to prevent falls to lower levels; installing handrails on stairs, curbs, and ramps; improving sidewalk ramps with more gradual slopes; installing new sidewalk ramps for pedestrian access; and replacing signs that are faded and adding new signs where required.
During the summer season, activities and holiday festivities are enjoyed by many but also include risks. The Safety Office helps to identify and mitigate these risks by reviewing the Operation Risk Management assessments of the activities and events held by Morale, Welfare, and Recreation.
In preparation for the base’s Independence Day holiday celebration, Amiee MacDonnell, MWR director, said that the Safety Office looked at the general environment where the event was taking place to identify any equipment that someone could bump into or cords running across a walkway that someone could trip over.
“In this particular venue, there are a variety of uneven surfaces in the Navy Exchange parking lot, so (we are) making sure those have been marked to avoid any trips or falls,” said MacDonnell. She said the MWR team is also “making sure that our event tents, especially if it is windy, are properly anchored to prevent those from flying away and injuring someone.”
Throughout the year, the Safety Office also keeps Team Souda safe by conducting scheduled inspections.
They visit higher-risk programs either quarterly or semi-annually. “If it’s administrative, it’s a low risk,” said Kriaraki. “If it is operational, the risk is higher so we do more inspections throughout the year.”
Monthly safety meetings attended by department representatives who are designated as collateral duty safety officers by their supervisors, provide information and training. Topics include the proper use of personal protective equipment, ladder safety, maintaining correct posture sitting at a desk, and frequently asked questions about the novel Coronavirus. The representatives are responsible for passing the information along to their co-workers.
“[A department safety representative’s] responsibility toward us would be, for example, to do self -inspections of their workplaces and to report any hazards that they may see to us,” said Kriaraki. “And we would help them, recommend how they would fix it.”
The Safety Office also participates on the Installation Training Team during installation-wide exercises to identify hazards where people are put into scenarios that fall outside their normal routines. Kriaraki said the Safety Office uses Operational Risk Management to identify any hazards to keep those participating in the exercises safe.
Safety Stand Downs
Safety Stand Downs are another way the Safety Office shares important information to prevent large mishaps from happening. In previous years, a Summer Safety Stand Down was held in the gymnasium where guest speakers discussed important topics about safety in Crete, followed by an information fair with booths manned by departments such as Medical, Fire and Emergency Services and Fleet and Family Support Center. However, Purtteman said that due to COVID-19 restrictions that prevent large groups from gathering, this year’s stand down had to be different.
Kriaraki said the Safety Office provided the presentations on CDs to each department to hold their own Safety Stand Down. The rosters from each department were provided back to the Safety Office to be entered into ESAMS to document the training record.
Purtteman said that the office put a lot of effort into making the presentation interesting and visually appealing this year, which he noted yielded a higher participation rate compared to previous years.
Safety Investigations
An accident does not need to happen for the Safety Office to do a safety investigation, said Kriaraki, noting that people can make a report of unsafe or unhealthful hazards they see and the Safety Office will go investigate.
“They can [make a report] anonymously either through ESAMS, they can leave a note under our door, or they can come by and tell us personally and say ‘Hey, listen I don’t want to be identified.’ As long as we know and someone reports it to us,” said Kriaraki.
What happens if an accident does occur?
Purtteman said the Safety Office conducts an accident investigation, writes an after-action report, and revises standard operating procedures and changes processes, if necessary, to prevent like occurrences from happening again.
Kriaraki said an important thing to remember about when the Safety Office investigates an accident is that they are not looking for who is at fault. “We’re not doing a safety investigation to point fingers. We’re just looking for prevention measures.”
Purtteman said that the notes and evidence they gather during an investigation cannot be revealed to departments outside of the Safety Office, such as Legal or Security. “What is reported to the command is ‘Mishap 1A’, just very generic information. To get more information, for let’s say judicial punishment, [the request for information] would not go through us.”
A Community Effort
Purtteman said that safety is not just the purview of the Safety Office; it is a community program and it takes the effort of everyone to make the program successful by decreasing mishaps and risks.
“Two sets of eyes are always better than one. The whole installation-wide eyes are better than just this one Safety Office,” said Purtteman. “So, we encourage not just our safety representatives but everybody throughout the command, if they see a hazard, report a hazard.”
If you would like to contact the NSA Souda Bay Safety Office, you can visit them in Building #53 or give them a call at (DSN) 266-1235 or (Commercial) +30 28210-21325.
Michael Bowers, explosive safety officer, has oversight of 10 explosive safety programs on the installation and performs an Explosive Safety Self-Assessment each year to identify and correct any findings.
“What I do is I keep check on everyone here that has anything to do with explosives and I go through all those programs with them,” said Bowers.
“We go around and we hit every one of those programs and everyone that applies to and do an assessment. And at the end of that assessment we come up with a report of any findings that we found ourselves … and not only fix them, but we fix the root of the problem.”
Bowers said he works with departments both directly and indirectly related to explosives. Naval Munitions Command and Security Forces maintain an inventory of weapons and ammunition, so he checks on their physical security procedures.
But departments that are indirectly related to explosives, such as the Public Works Department’s Transportation Office, must also be checked. If a forklift lifts some explosives, it has to be a specific forklift with a specific set of maintenance requirements, said Bowers.
Bowers said that he is also a pier safety loading officer who must be on site whenever an explosive item is loaded or unloaded at the piers.
“I’m there not to supervise the explosives but from the bigger picture when I’m looking at the pier,” said Bowers. “It’s the bigger picture. We’re on the pier – who else is there? Who doesn’t need to be there? Let’s get rid of them. What else is going on on the pier? Let’s shut it all down - because when you handle explosives that’s the only thing that happens.”
| Date Taken: | 07.08.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.08.2020 03:58 |
| Story ID: | 373510 |
| Location: | GR |
| Web Views: | 74 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A Day in the Life of the Safety Office at NSA Souda Bay, by Joel Diller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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