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What SIFp means, why it matters, and what most safety programs miss about modern fatality prevention. You just got lucky. Somewhere on your jobsites in the last 90 days, a worker likely stepped into a condition with the energy to kill them and walked out without a scratch. No incident report. Maybe a near miss filed. More likely nothing at all. That event has a name in the research literature: a Potential Serious Injury or Fatality, abbreviated SIFp or PSIF. It is one of the most valuable sign

Brady Keene

June 23, 2026·8 min read

Safety students at Grand Valley State University did not learn to chat with AI. They learned to work with it. Here is what changed, and what it means if you hire safety professionals. Most people meet AI through a blank text box. You type a question, you get an answer, you move on. That is fine for trivia. It is not how safety work gets done, and it is not how we taught it. This semester, safety students at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan used StepoAI to build the kind

Brady Keene

June 3, 2026·5 min read

At a glance * PTP completion is not the same as PTP quality * Recycled PTPs can create a false sense of control * The PTP is one of the places where high energy work should be connected to direct controls * If the PTP does not change when the work changes, planning may not have happened * The fix is not more paperwork. It is looking at what changed between yesterday's plan and today's work * Safety leaders should measure PTP quality, not just PTP count The flip through test Flip throug

Brady Keene

May 29, 2026·5 min read

What a Toolbox Talk is and what it is not A toolbox talk is a short crew briefing on a specific hazard, delivered before the work that exposes the crew to that hazard. It is not formal training and it is not a pre-task-plan. The PTP identifies and controls hazards at the task level. The talk briefs the crew on one hazard and confirms shared mental model. Treating the talk as a substitute for either is the most common program defect. Step 1 - Topic selection Weight topics in this order: 1.

Brady Keene

May 6, 2026·3 min read

At a glance * BLS projects roughly 19,200 safety openings each year. US colleges produce about 1,100 safety graduates annually. * One in four current safety professionals are expected to retire in the next decade. * There is no single source of talent that closes this gap. * Companies that combine multiple pipelines, intentional development, and modern tools will be better positioned to staff the next decade. The ones waiting on one clean fix will not. The math does not work The demand f

Brady Keene

April 24, 2026·4 min read

Recently, I was asked to write a piece on the trajectory of AI in construction safety for the Connecticut Construction Industries Association (CCIA) CONNstruction Magazine. Below is a short summary. If you are looking for more insight, check out the full article. A few takeaways: AI in construction safety is not falling short because of the technology. In many cases, it is because the focus has been on speed rather than how work actually happens. Early efforts improved reporting and data coll

Brady Keene

April 23, 2026·1 min read

At a glance * Energy is present in every task, whether anyone is looking at it or not * Most serious injuries happen when energy moves in a way no one controlled * Energy based safety is a way of seeing work, not a new program to buy * A short list of energy sources shows up on almost every job * Three simple questions change how a team thinks about a task * The shift is small on paper and large in the field Why we are talking about energy Most safety training starts with rules. Wear t

Brady Keene

April 17, 2026·4 min read

At a glance: Not all energy is equal. Some will bruise, some can kill. High energy is the kind that drives serious injuries and fatalities. Direct controls are what actually stop that energy from reaching a worker. PPE, procedures, and training help, but they are not direct controls. Most SIF events share the same story. High energy was present, and no direct control was in place. Knowing the difference changes how you plan, observe, and respond. Why this matters If you read the last post on

Brady Keene

April 17, 2026·4 min read

At a glance: AI agents in safety should not feel like software that people operate. They should feel like the best coworker you have ever had on a job. Like the one who carries memory, understands context, and helps decisions happen in the flow of work without adding friction. The Real Problem With Safety Tech Today A lot of safety technology still behaves like a rulebook taped to a hard hat. It can be correct and still be unhelpful when the plan changes and the crew is improvising. Real work

Brady Keene

February 4, 2026·3 min read