Experts find regulatory compliance alone fails to stop falls and machinery accidents, urging simple point-of-task guidance.

• By Jesse Jacobs
• Aug 11, 2026

Workplace safety experts gathered in Chicago and Washington, D.C., to tackle two of industry’s most persistent hazards: falls from height and lockout/tagout failures.

More than 95 safety professionals participated in the working sessions hosted by the American Society of Safety Professionals. Despite differences in location and attendees, both convenings reached a shared conclusion: the gap in safety performance stems not from a lack of regulations, but from a failure to make complex standards usable at the point of task.

The findings are detailed in the Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention Convening Report, which outlines key operational themes and barriers identified during the events.

Among the primary takeaways, experts noted that safety must be treated as a core operational driver rather than an added compliance cost. Traditional "check-the-box" annual training programs are proving insufficient, creating a need for ongoing, task-specific competency verification.

To improve frontline execution, the report emphasizes point-of-task usability through plain-language guides and pictograms placed where exposures occur. It also calls for increased focus on Prevention through Design, an approach that eliminates hazards during the initial planning phases rather than relying on frontline intervention.

Moving forward, Standards-Based User Groups will validate the report’s findings and test practical solutions in real-world settings. These peer groups will evaluate corrective actions, pilot implementation methods and measure results across participating organizations.

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