We see lots of ideas float around in Safety, many are just ‘thought bubbles’ with little consideration of design (affordances), human nature or by-products. Many of these ideas are packaged in semiotic strategies by well-meaning people with no expertise in semiotics. Then when things drive the opposite of an intention, are puzzled why the idea did more harm than good.

It seems as long as one has a ‘passion’ for safety or sincerity in intent, that is enough.

This week we saw an idea by Road Safety Queensland to play trivia on road signs to tackle the challenges of fatigue.

The purpose of these signs is to battle boredom and people who drive long distances and have no break or strategy to tackle fatigue. The stats say that fatigue and distraction account for 10% of all deaths on the road in Queensland. I have driven on some of those outback roads and they can be pretty bad. Huge stretches of single lane road in poor condition for kilometres without a bend or tree in sight. Then again, nothing in Queensland can compare to driving the Nullarbor.

The idea of trivia signs seems an interesting idea but they can only work once, unless signs are changed daily or weekly.

Whilst we know about human fatigue, boredom and apathy, we also know that desensitization is also very real. We also know that whilst signs are cheap they are not effective over time (). However, they also communicate that ‘something has been done’ to supposedly absolve a group of responsibility.

One of the best places to start in understanding what signage does, is research by Danesi (2022) Warning Signs, The Semiotics of Danger. Bloomsbury.  London.

One of the myths that prevails in Safety is that signs are objective and neutral, they are not. All signs and symbols are interpreted according to culture, context and perception. There is no such thing a neutral, objective sign. This is why Safety has such a focus in inductions to create a common understanding of signs in the workplace. This also demonstrates that Safety doesn’t really believe in ‘common sense’. This is also a good reason to be intelligent and conscious about Semiotics (https://cllr.com.au/product/semiotics-and-the-social-psychology-of-risk-unit-3-overseas-online-elearning/).

I wonder where in the world in Safety there is any curriculum that consults Danesi’s work or expertise in semiotics? I suspect nowhere. Yet, Safety cares so much about danger and loves signs??? Does it ever consider its by-products?

Did the creators of the trivia signs in Queensland consider desensitisation or by-products? Perhaps the trivia sign might provoke drivers to look up answers on their mobile phone? Afterall, we also know impatience is a common human characteristic. Just as well mobile phones don’t work in the outback, yet.

And so, we know that the by-product of the semiotic of Reason’s swiss-cheese teaches Safety the delusion that events are linear, and they are not. We know the Bradley Curve teaches the delusions of zero and that the Heinrich delusion (https://safetyrisk.net/the-non-science-of-heinrich/) teaches nonsense about injury ratios.

Unfortunately, once this semiotics are set in concrete in safety, the delusion becomes a myth (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/). When the delusion is made reality (when it is not), it drives the development of systems based on delusion that then become harmful (https://safetyrisk.net/the-meaning-of-myth-in-risk/).

Safety then counts injury rates that are not a measure of safety. Conducts incident investigations looking for linear cause that doesn’t exist and, promotes ideas that dehumanise the very people (https://safetyrisk.net/wo-men-in-safety/; https://safetyrisk.net/the-wisdom-of-the-beguines-for-safety/) it wishes to ‘save’.

If you wish to learn about Semiotics you can do so here: https://cllr.com.au/product/semiotics-and-the-social-psychology-of-risk-unit-3-overseas-online-elearning/

If you want to see how semiotic methods can affect risk then download our free book here: https://www.humandymensions.com/product/spor-and-semiotics/