There is possibly nothing as dumb as the repetition of the dumb slogan in safety: ‘all accidents are preventable’. Where ever you hear it, you know that the level of intelligence in living and being is infinity on the dumb scale.

It seems no-one does dumb better than NSW Roads and Transport for NSW. Just look at this post for ‘fatality Free Friday’: Figure 1. NSW Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) Dedication to Dumb.

Figure 1. NSW Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) Dedication to Dumb.

And there we have it in the semiotic, the mindless cult of zero on full show.

How strange, you will never hear such nonsense language in an insurance company or government Department that knows how to deal with reality.

Of course, you have to see their super dumb zero ad where they roll out numerous actors and ask the dumb question ‘what would be a more acceptable number?’ (https://youtu.be/k2tOye9DKdQ?si=LXlOgU2THLDYdwyT). With over 350,000 views this ad is one of the most mindlessly stupid ad campaigns of all. Meanwhile the road fatality rate doesn’t change (https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/statistics) and, this campaign has been running for years.

Why is it that safety doesn’t get it that this question is an unethical question of entrapment?

Ah, when you believe the myth that safety is about injury rates, you never question zero ideology. Just look at all the fever pitched support for zero at the Global Zero Congress in Sydney in 2023 (https://safetyrisk.net/safetyzero-culture/; https://safetyrisk.net/zero-and-a-culture-of-denial/; https://safetyrisk.net/how-to-escape-the-safetyzero-cult/). And, look at the sponsors of zero (https://safetyrisk.net/the-sponsors-of-zero-are/). See how the Safety Science Lab supports zero (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-an-immoral-goal/). Of course, so easy to support zero when you have no expertise in ethics (https://safetyrisk.net/zero-is-not-noble-moral-or-sense-able/ ). But, this is what safety does, it describes what is, by what isn’t.

How strange, most people in business know that when a campaign doesn’t work, you question the campaign. Not safety, keep persevering with silly language and semiotics, hoping things will get better. Meanwhile, the brutalism of Safety doesn’t waiver.

And, this is despite all the improvements in roads and car design, still no decrease in road fatalities. Indeed, the growing trend in the sale of SUVs is actually doubling the pedestrian fatalities (https://safetyrisk.net/when-the-goal-is-zero-make-sure-you-dont-address-anything-significant/ ). Ah yes, but Safety doesn’t want to take on the car manufacturing lobby. Let’s just keep preaching zero.

But, it’s not zero really is it, its ‘toward zero’ which is a much easier message but nonetheless naïve and mindless. Poor old Safety has no idea what to do. So, it keeps speaking nonsense to people (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-experts-in-speaking-nonsense-to-people/).

I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway dos it? It’s just words, semiotics and mythology?

And, look at the language of this campaign ‘all road deaths are preventable’ on ‘fatality free Friday’ (I wonder if zero applies to other days?)

Of course, all rape is preventable, all murders are preventable, all mistakes are preventable indeed, anything that goes wrong is preventable. Such a stupid proposal and language in a fallible world, with mortal humans and out of touch with reality. This is the safety way. All crime is preventable, all family violence is preventable, all mental health is preventable. This is the level of stupidity paraded about by Transport for NSW.

I know let’s go into all the prisons in Australia and run a no crime campaign. The mantra can be: ‘all crime is preventable’, yeah, that will work! Really, could anything be more simplistic, naïve and dumb? Yet, this is what is done in safety. Let’s not target real issues and reality, lets target metrics and numerics and, continue the fictional myths and alternate reality of Heinrich.

The ideology of zero (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/)  is a mental health disorder in the safety industry (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-obsession-as-a-mental-illness/). Any denial of reality, fallibility and mortality is delusional nonsense. Any ideology of perfectionism is a mental illness.

Yet, this is what Safety is locked into and now doesn’t know how to get out. This is how the Archetype of Zero works. Once you bring it into your business or organisation, it becomes impossible to jettison. This is because it relies on a simplistic form of logic and an addiction to a religious cult energised by the Archetype of perfection. And, the more you push it, the stronger a myth it becomes until it cannot be removed because, removal and silence on zero is equated with being anti-safety.

And, the only way to keep to the ideology of Zero is to ignore all its by-products and unethical conduct that are harmful. But if you keep repeating this nonsense mantra ‘all accidents are preventable’ you will remain locked into the delusion of zero and nothing will change. And, of course if acc idents are preventable, we must find out who didn’t prevent them and blame and punishment must be enacted. And as this promotion for zero states, if you haven’t achieved zero on Friday you weren’t committed to zero enough.

It is possible to get rid of zero so that safety improves (https://safetyrisk.net/moving-away-from-zero-so-that-safety-improves/ ) but it requires significant intelligence and courage. You can read about a case study of how it works here: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety-book-for-free-download/

Once you know how harmful zero is and how unethical it is, it is easy to learn how to be silent about it. Once you know there is no relationship between counting injury rates and safety, it’s easy to move to a method of tackling risk that is humanising and ethical.

If you want to make that change and escape The Love of Zero then you can do a few things:

You can download free books here: https://www.humandymensions.com/shop/

You can do the free Introduction to SPoR here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/4233556

You can email for coaching here: admin@spor.com.au

You can watch free videos here: https://vimeo.com/cllr

Or you can come to the SPoR Convention in September: https://spor.com.au/spor-convention-2025/

Once you move away from the negatives of zero to the positives of SPoR, you will never go back to this punitive culture of traditional safety that sets up everyone for failure and locks everyone into mythology.