Quarterly Incentive Program Recognizes Safety Standouts
When it comes to safety, there is no finish line. To work injury free, we must continually look for opportunities to make our work practices and procedures safer. Over time, we believe these efforts will change our culture and help make our jobsites injury free.
RailWorks’ Quarterly Safety Incentive Program recognizes employees who are true champions for safety. These are individuals demonstrate leadership and courage by taking charge to improve safety.
Congratulations to the following three individuals who are the Safety Incentive award winners for the second quarter of 2009.
Clinton Grams, RailWorks Track Services, Sewell, NJ – How you respond in an emergency situation can make a huge difference in the outcome. That was clearly evident when a fellow employee on Clinton’s crew got his hand caught between the frame on a truck and its power-lift gate. Clinton sized up the situation and instead of panicking, he used an aligning bar to create a wedge between the gate and truck frame. Clinton moved the gate just enough to allow the employee to pull his hand free. While some employees initially thought the hand was amputated, Clinton kept a cool head and looked for a safe way to extricate the employee’s hand. The end result was just a badly bruised hand.
Bob Dedrick, RailWorks Track Services, North Jackson, OH – “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” Thank goodness that’s not the way Bob thinks. He literally took matters into his own hands when he initiated purchasing “anti vibration” gloves for air spike gun operators. With additional padding in the palm, thumb and fingers areas, these special gloves are much more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. Since machine operators from the Youngstown office began wearing them, crews were able to go longer periods of time without changing out operators. These gloves just may prevent possible injuries too!
Dominic Archambault, PNR Coyle, Delson, Quebec – Dominic does not have the word “Safety” in his title, but he might as well have. He understands the role every employee has – even those who work in an office – to keep worksites free of safety hazards. Dominic proactively put these safe practices and resources into action:
- Installed pictograms to help users rapidly locate extinguishers and began an extinguisher inspection program,
- Put together a MSDS book for use by track gangs,
- Provided all operators an individual lock for the lock-out procedure,
- Implemented a recycling program for cardboard, paper and dangerous products,
- Ensured all containers were properly labels according to MSDS requirements, and
- Purchased a grounded flammable cabinet to store flammable products.
