On July 3, a truck carrying fireworks for an Independence Day celebration exploded on Ocracoke Island off the outer banks of North Carolina, killing 4 and seriously injuring another. The explosion occurred as temporary contractors for Melrose South Pyrotechnics, a South Carolina company, unloaded fireworks from the truck they used to deliver the explosives.
The explosion was ruled an accident by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. But the N.C. Dept of Labor is still investigating. The State’s Insurance Commissioner and Fire Marshal, Wayne Goodwin, is calling for North Carolina legislators to require new certification training for fireworks crew members to ensure they are adequately trained.
This is a clear example of how the cost of failure is driving companies to provide certification based training to prevent accidents from occurring, and to limit the liability for those companies when the accident does happen. No doubt this is why the insurance commissioner is driving this issue. The good news is company officials from Melrose agree with the requirements and stated they have been calling for exactly the same.
The questions still to be answered are, were these workers properly trained? And why do we have to wait for lives to be lost before we start looking for solutions? Shouldn't the businesses show corporate responsibility to drive certification training requirements?
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