via E-Mail
For suggestion or comments contact Dan Reed via E-Mail
January has come and gone. It sure went by fast, didn't it? The bad news is we had an injury in January. It was a reportable, and it happened at Carrollton, Texas. A man got off the engine and was moving away from the car which had derailed, a few feet from the track was an incline and he slipped down it, twisting his knee.
Last year in January, we had three incidents, but none were reportable. Slips, trips and falls, as usual, were our biggest enemies and were the biggest cause of our incidents last year, and now we start 1998 out with one.
It is a must that we keep ourselves focused and watch where we step at all times to prevent this.
Broken down by time of day, last year, 6 incidents happened, between the 2nd and 3rd hour on duty, 5 occurred during the 1st hour, 5 between the 3rd and 4th hour, and 5 between the 6th and 7th hours on duty.
As for the day of the week, 6 happened on Monday and Tuesday, and 5 on Friday and Sunday. Is there a pattern here, beginning and ending of shift --beginning and ending of work week? Could we not be thinking about work or safety as we start the shift or work week -- hurrying to get work done so we can go home -- thinking about the coming days off?
Maybe some of you who had an incident in these periods could call me and give me your thoughts of why it happened at these times of the day or these days of the week. It could be something to look at and talk about. It might help prevent incidents in the future.
Some of us think most of the incidents happen to younger people, but, 14 of our incidents involved people 40 to 49 years old, 7 involved people 50 to 59 years old, 4 involved 61 to 70 years olds, but only 2 for persons between the ages of 20 to 40.
You would think the older we became, the smarter we'd get, and more conscientious we'd be, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
Do we get complacent, too macho -- "It won't happen to me," -- "I can still do what I did 20 years ago...."?
I would like for you to call me, and give me your thoughts. As I stated above, it might help keep you or someone else from getting an injury in the future. This is what I'm after. I don't want us to have any more accidents.
I just finished meeting with every shift in Fort Worth at Ney Yard, the Bowl, and the Crest. I enjoyed these meetings. They were all good, and we had some good response. It was good seeing you again and meeting some of the new people.
I hope you enjoyed these meetings and that you also got something out of them. I'm now going to set a schedule to see the folks in Arlington and Dallas, and then back to Fort Worth. Hopefully, I can see everyone at least once per quarter.
I want to thank Gene Denham, Supervisor of McCormick Vans for attending these meetings with me and talking about some of the van complaints we have had. I think he shed some light on the problems.
Folks, we have got a lot of work to do on Safety, so let's stay after it. If we work together as a team, we will have a good Safety record, but the beauty part of this will be that you did not get hurt. That is what we are all after.
Gene is Safety Manager for the Fort Worth Service Unit.
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