On Aug. 10, 2026, ASSP released its “Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Convening Report,” highlighting key themes and insights to advance SIF prevention. To take a deeper look at those themes, we’re exploring the report in a three-part blog series. This is the last installment.

With apologies to Bonnie Tyler, worksites could use fewer heroes. What they need are better-designed safety systems. The worker should not have to compensate for failing equipment or structures.

But it happens far too often and for myriad reasons. It could be the end of a shift, and the worker is rushing to end the day. It could be something small, and what could happen if they try to get this one last job done fast? Or maybe it’s a culture problem, and the worker feels alone or unable to advocate for themself. They may not speak the language, or they might fear losing their job if they say no.

“A lot of times, these are our most vulnerable populations,” says Lauren Bauerschmidt, CSP, senior manager of standards and technical publications at the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP). “Are they going to speak up?”

Whatever the reason, it is a problem — a dangerous one. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that about 5,000 people die of work injuries every year, or about 3.3 deaths for every 100,000 workers.

“Safety professionals are full of nightmares,” Bauerschmidt says. “We want these people going home at the end of the night, so how do we get them the information they need to do that?”

This past spring, ASSP convened nearly 100 safety professionals across two working sessions in Chicago and Washington, D.C., to identify why existing hazard controls haven’t prevented serious injuries or fatalities (SIFs) from falls from height and lockout/tagout (LOTO) failures. During both convenings, participants named Prevention through Design (PtD) processes as the most important upstream solutions to implement.

For PtD to be effective, safety professionals need to be part of the design from the beginning, not just brought in at the end. Identifying how hazards can be eliminated or reduced before anything is built or bolted to the ground is critical. This helps eliminate potential hazards and removes the need for individual heroics — something Bauerschmidt thinks is ingrained in the current workplace culture.

“There’s this fallacy of ‘I’ve always done it this way, so I’ll be fine,’ or ‘It’s just one time,’” she says. “That leads people to make these decisions.”

It’s also about getting workers to break the habit of equating work with toughness or independence. “It’s really hard to overcome that,” she admits, and it will require the company accepting that these changes may mean production is slowed down to ensure safety. But it’s a critically important culture change, and Bauerschmidt wants safety professionals to know ASSP supports them.

“We believe in them, and we’re here for them,” she says. “A lot of times, especially at smaller organizations, they may be the lone safety person who is trying to solve all these things at once. We want to be that person who’s with you, who can help you do that. We want to meet you where you are so that you can go and help the folks that you’re trying to help.”

Read the full SIF Prevention Convening Report, which was developed following the working sessions this past spring.