OSHA’s Top 10 Violations & TapRooT®-ing the 7 Focus Areas Proactively

Barb Carr’s Moving from Proactive to Reactive is your template for success in any improvement program. Let’s discuss how to handle OSHA’s top 10 violations in 2025 and their 2026 focus areas proactively.

Top 10 violations:

1. Fall Protection – General Requirements (1926.501): 5,914 violations
2. Hazard Communication (1910.1200): 2,546
3. Ladders (1926.1053): 2,405
4. Lockout/Tagout (1910.147): 2,177
5. Respiratory Protection (1910.134): 1,953
6. Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503): 1,907
7. Scaffolding (1926.451): 1,905
8. Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178): 1,826
9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection (1926.102): 1,665
10. Machine Guarding (1910.212): 1,239

First, you investigate reactively. We look in-depth at all 10 items in the TapRooT® 5-Day Advanced Root Cause Analysis Team Leader training, which equips your investigators to analyze:

• Where is your organization now: SnapCharT®
• Missing Best Practices (root causes) that allow violations to occur: Root Cause Analysis
• Everywhere these root causes exist: Generic Cause Analysis
• How to fix them globally: S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Corrective Actions
• Getting leadership buy-in to CAPA by reporting well

From that list of 10 most common violations, OSHA developed a list of seven focus areas listed below, with my recommended targets for your TapRooT® proactive audit.

• Fall Protection – For Fall Protection accidents in the last two years, complete TapRooT® Generic Cause Analysis. Ask the 10 questions for PPE / fall protection NI.
• Hazard Communication / Chemical Safety – Workspace walk for each Energy Wheel hazard. Ask all 7 questions on employee communications NI, and the 8 for employee feedback NI. Conduct (or review) one proper Pre-Job Safety Analysis for Human Factors and precursors to human error.
• Lockout/Tagout & Machine Guarding – go to the equipment that hurts the most people, and ask the 6 Root Cause Tree® questions for lockout/tag out NI and 3 for equipment guard NI
• Respiratory Protection & PPE / Eye Protection – identify a specific, typical PPE, and ask the 10 questions for PPE / fall protection NI.
• Ladder & Scaffold Safety – Call “did not use 3 points of contact” your causal factor and ask the 15 Human Performance Troubleshooting questions.
• Powered Industrial Trucks – 1. Do you have backup cameras installed? 2. Do your truck drivers go through training AND observed/coached experience for that vehicle, like at all?
• Predictive Safety & Culture Development – Each question under the Management System Basic Cause Category. Attend the 1- Day Executive Leadership’s Role in Root Cause Analysis course and conduct a Safety Culture Measurement.

For all root causes identified on the Root Cause Tree®, ask the most important question: where else does it exist? Use TapRooT®’s Generic Cause Analysis, which drives targeted proactive audits.

Finally, assign the individuals with the power to fix them a S.M.A.R.T.E.R. corrective action using the Corrective Action Helper® Guide.

That’s it, but what if I don’t know TapRooT® yet?

Your first step in the TapRooT® Journey is to attend one of our public TapRooT® courses. Then start working with your TapRooT® strategic advisor and your leadership to develop your implementation plan to move from reactive to proactive investigations.

To properly handle OSHA’s 7 focus areas for 2026, you cannot do this lift on your own: Maintenance, Operations, HSE, Quality, Reliability, Engineering, Talent Development, Management, and Finance all need a unified vision for the improvement process.

If your organization is ready to get better at learning, schedule an on-site 5-Day TapRooT® Advanced Root Cause Analysis and quit letting OSHA drive your improvement program.