ARTICLE
Why Companies Struggle to Use Personal Safety Bowties
When companies have bowties for personal safety risks, few use them effectively. The problem is not the bowtie itself. The problem is how the bowtie is built.
The common problem: The center of the bowtie is wrong
Bowties often have activities, hazards, broad risks, or fatalities in the center of the diagram.
Examples:
- Working around water (activity)
- Confined space (hazard)
- Hazardous Energy (includes multiple fatal risks)
- Young worker killed during crane lift (fatality)
This is incorrect. The center of the bowtie should be the moment when fatal energy is released
Examples:
- Worker contacts electricity
- Release of Object under tension
- Fall of person
- Fall of object
Getting the center right separates prevention from mitigation
When the center is correct, the left side of the bowtie contains controls that prevent the event from occurring, and the right side contains controls that reduce the consequences after the event occurs.
Example Center Event: Drowning
Preventative Controls (Left Side)
- Guardrails around ponds, tailings, and docks
- Covers, barriers, or grating over water hazards
- Ice-thickness monitoring
Mitigative Controls (Right Side)
- Reach poles and rescue hooks
- Specialized recovery equipment
- Emergency response
If the center is incorrectly defined as and activity or worker fatality, organizations will struggle to distinguish between preventative and mitigative controls and end up with a confusing diagram.
A clear center makes scope and threats easy to identify
Changing the center of the bowtie from “Working Around Water” (Activity) to “Drowning” (Fatal Risk) ensures threats and scope are built on the fatality pathway rather than a specific activity of working around water
Working Around Water vs Drowning
| Element | Working Around Water | Drowning |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Activity | Fatal Risk |
| Threats | Causes of working around water | Causes of drowning |
| Controls | Prevent people from working around water | Prevent people from drowning |
The Bottom line
The center of the bowtie is the foundation of the entire fatal risk analysis. If the center event is wrong, the threats and controls will also be wrong. A well-built bowtie helps companies understand what can kill and how it can kill. A poorly built bowtie leaves critical control failures hidden in the Fatality Risk Whitespace.