COMMENT
Business Buzz
with Harry Pearson
Not all heroes wear capes – some wear hard hats
‘ Health and safety gone mad ’ is a phrase that ’ s often used to ridicule measures designed to keep us from harm at work . But if you know your industrial history , as Harry ’ s dad does , you ’ ll know better ...
This issue ’ s cover star , Danielle Croce , heads up Intasite , a company that creates health and safety software for high-hazard industries . Whenever anyone mentions health and safety to me , I recall a barge holiday on the Llangollen Canal with my family in 1968 . The highlight of that trip , for my dad at least , was crossing the famous aqueduct that carries the canal over the valley of the River Dee . Dad was a structural steel engineer at Teesside Bridge . Spanning rivers was one of the things he did for a living . Before we took the barge over the aqueduct , he and I went down to the banks of the river to get a good look at it . The aqueduct over the Dee is made from stone and cast iron . It has 18 arches , is 307 metres long and stands 38 metres high . Looking up at it made you feel dizzy . It seemed mad that anyone even thought of building it , never mind that they actually went out and did it .
“ Thomas Telford and William Jessop built this ,” Dad told me . “ They started the project in 1795 . It was opened in 1805 .” He gazed at it with wonder – a professional amazed by the work of other professionals .
“ Hell of a job ,” he said . “ It cost about £ 40,000 . How many men do you think died building it ?”
I was seven years old . The biggest thing I had ever built was a fort made of Lego . However , like any kid in the 1960s , I had watched a huge number of war films . I thought for a moment , picturing John Wayne .
Modern day H & S leader – Tees Businesswoman of the Year Danielle Croce .
Safety pioneer - Thomas Telford , cocreator of the aqueduct across the Llangollen Canal .
“ One-hundred-and-twenty-seven ,” I said with the kind of precision I knew would impress an engineer . My dad patted me on the head consolingly – a good effort . “ The equipment they had , the working practices , the size and scale of the project , I ’ d be surprised if it was fewer than …”
Dad thought for a while making calculations in his head based on the jobs he ’ d worked on ... “… Fifty ,” he said . Dad had a book all about the canal . He took it out to study it when we got back to the narrowboat . After a moment he emitted a low hum of astonishment .
“ Incredible ,” he said , “ Not a single man killed on the whole job ”.
My dad is now 92 . Each week we visit my mum in a care home . She has dementia , so we talk about things from the past . One day in October we chatted about the holiday on the Llangollen Canal .
“ Remember the aqueduct ?” Dad said . “ A brilliant piece of engineering , but the really astounding thing is …”
I knew what he was going to say . Even all these years later , the fact that none of the men who worked on Telford and Jessop ’ s great project was killed building it , remains to him – a man who knew all too well the human price of such feats – the greatest achievement of all . And , when you think about , that ’ s as it should be .
It ’ s easy , if we work in warm offices where the biggest threat to our safety is spilling hot coffee on our lap , to get heated up about a world in which health and safety has “ gone mad ”.
Those who work in heavy industry , as my father once did , take a different view . The achievements of the great steel , shipping and chemical companies of Teesside were and are extraordinary , but they sometimes come at a cost – not just in money , but in blood . Companies such as Intasite work to minimise that . Dad approves .
Harry Pearson ’ s latest book The Farther Corner – A Sentimental Return to North-East Football is out now .
178 | Tees Business