By Steve Moran
A few weeks ago, CNN published a tragic story about a teenager thrown from a Central Park carriage who later died. Here is a brief summary.
Romanch Mahajan was 18 on the third day of his first trip to New York, celebrating his high school graduation and his acceptance to university. He was riding in a horse-drawn carriage with three family members when the driver dismounted to take a photo of the group. While the driver was off the carriage, the horse bolted. Mahajan was thrown to the ground. He survived the initial fall and was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but his injuries were too severe. He died a few hours later.
The Shocking Response
I was shocked by how the Transport Workers Union, the organization representing carriage drivers, responded.
The same day, the union’s Alexander Kemp condemned the driver’s conduct without hedging. “A driver is not supposed to leave the carriage to take photos – ever,” he said in a statement. He called for a full investigation. Within that same window, according to the union, the carriage owner suspended the driver indefinitely and made plans to retire the horse.
Days later, as the union laid out its safety response, it kept the same tone. They did not soften the language or quietly move on. They stayed with it publicly, in a follow-up statement, while committing to a “Vision Zero approach” going forward.
Notice what they did not do. They did not go quiet. They did not let the silence do the talking. They named the specific failure, they named the consequence, and they said this is not who we are.
Can You Imagine?
Can you imagine any leader from any organizational body in senior living doing this? A story splashes across local or national news about abuse or neglect by an operator, and the industry’s response is to name it, condemn it, and say publicly: that operator is not us, and we want them exposed and driven out of this business.
I have never seen it happen. Not once. Not even when the negligence is obvious and inexcusable. The industry goes quiet, as if silence makes it look less bad. I think the real message silence sends is that we don’t care all that much.
Even Better
What if, when these things happen, we did an investigation and published our findings? Recommendations aimed at preventing the next tragedy, out in the open, with our name on it?
We have a massive perception problem right now. Older people tell us over and over that they don’t want to go into senior living. This silence is part of why. They see bad things happen, and they see an industry that would rather look away than own it.
