via E-Mail
For suggestion or comments contact Gene Garrett via E-Mail
I want to start this month's letter by congratulating David O'Bannon and Jack Davis. David is a Conductor from Fort Worth to Big Spring and has worked 35 years without an injury. Jack is a Foreman at Mockingbird in Dallas, has worked 32 years without an injury.
These are great records, absolutely great, and I congratulate both of these fellows. They were also recognized at the Texas Safety Association in Austin on April 7th, and were received a plaque and presented a beautiful pocket watch. GREAT JOB FELLOWS.
I'd like to see everyone of us copy what these two men have done.
I want to congratulate and thank everyone for doing a great job in Safety this year. By working and doing the right things, you have made the Fort Worth Service Unit the safest place to work on the Union Pacific Railroad.
Our service unit is Number One in Safety. Great Job.
At the end of April, we have had six incidents, two of which were reportable. The last one happened on April 30th, this might knock us out of our Number One position. I certainly hope not. I like being Number One. It shows that everyone is doing good and not getting hurt, and this is what we are after.
While we are at six incidents, including two reportables, we are still doing pretty doggone good, but, as you know, one incident is one too many. So, guys and gals, THINK. Do a good job briefings. Use good common sense. Communicate. Read the safety rule for the day. Focus yourself on Safety. It will pay great dividends to all of us. Not having incidents are the best dividends we can receive.
Several years ago, someone came up with a "Safety Pyramid." It read from the bottom, "For every 30,000 unsafe acts/conditions, there are 3,000 close calls, 300 injuries, 30 serious injuries, 3 very serious injuries, and 1 fatality. Think about it.
We had a Hazel Day on April 30th at Miller Yard, we were joined by people from Maintenance of Way and three men from Miller, plus managers. We certainly did not get all the junk, but we did pick up a lot of stuff.
Thanks to everyone who participated. It was a good day and a beneficial day.
I am making my rounds of visiting every shift again. At this point, I have already been to several meetings and have shown a film called "Your Work Place, Your Safety." It is a good film. For those of you that I have not seen yet, I will see you soon. I am looking forward to it. I like these meetings. They have been good positive meetings.
In Fort Worth at the Bowl, we still have the age old concern of the scrap cars which spill out a lot of junk in the yards. There have been a couple of you guys that give me numbers of some cars that come in overloaded.
I copied the waybill information of these cars and send them to the manager of the area they come from asking them to talk to the customer about not overloading these cars. I ask them to tell the customer the problem they are causing, and if necessary, we would take action to stop it. I have not heard back from any of them yet.
We have had some beautiful weather, not too hot, not too cold, but let's not get complacent. It's going to get hotter. Just be sure to drink plenty of water.
Everyone be careful and keep focused on Safety - LET'S MAKE MAY AN INCIDENT FREE MONTH. If we do this, everyone will feel great.
Gene is Safety Manager for the Fort Worth Service Unit.
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