Supporting the safety of employees and customers is a stated goal for most organizations. Besides its importance for individual employees and for society more broadly, safety is linked to organizational success. For example, safety is directly linked to decreased liability, health, workers’
compensation, and medical costs. It is also associated with greater employee satisfaction and retention. And visible cases of lapses in safety can severely damage an organization’s reputation.
The question, then, is why some organizations continue to struggle with supporting workplace safety despite the demonstrated value of doing so.
Part of the problem is that employee and customer safety is the result of multiple, complicated factors, including organizational culture, climate, rules, and policies; leadership; employee training; and even employee health. It is also a function of the physical work environment and the safeguards that are put into place by the organization.

Similarly, on January 4, 2017, a Long Island Railroad train crashed into the Brooklyn station, destroying a bumper, ramming into a room just beyond the end of the track, and injuring more than 100 people. Again, the engineer said he remembered approaching the station but had no memory of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board found that he too was overweight and had sleep apnea. (After the crash, Long Island Railroad immediately started testing its engineers for sleep apnea; at one point, 8 of the 34 engineers that had been tested—nearly 25%—had sleep apnea.)
Also, like the New Jersey Transit case, it had been recommended that positive train control be installed, but it was not in place on the Long Island line at the time of the crash.

Case Discussion Questions 1. Given the examples of these three organizations, why do you think that these types of accidents continue to occur? Consider multiple issues and stakeholders that might be affecting railroads’ decisions about preventing accidents, including short-term versus long-term goals.
2. Based on these cases, do you think that these three organizations have a safety culture in which workers perceive that management views safety as a priority? Which factors in the cases make you say that?
Could it be that the culture is positive in some ways but not in others?
How might these cultures be improved?
3. Consider the multiple variables, including employee characteristics and behaviors, and factors in the physical environment that would help prevent transportation accidents such as these. Then develop a plan for a passenger railroad system that would help to prevent accidents.
4. What would be your argument to organizational leaders about the relative value of each of your suggestions? What data and metrics would you want to have available to you to make your arguments?
5. In two of the cases described here, the health of the engineers might have played a role in the accident. What is the employer’s responsibility for monitoring and maintaining the health of their employees when it can have a direct impact on public safety?