Tuesday, March 25, 2014

When It Comes to Safety, Plan for Everything

Last week I spent some time in the Northeast District.  I met with the Work Life Team in Macon, drove some minor roads around the area and met with the New Cambria Maintenance Team before they  started their day. 

I wanted to share some observations with you. The Work Life Team had just finished a week of doing the Gear Up Program for a group of new employees. The comments I heard from them was how impressed they were with the quality of the new hires we had brought on to Team MoDOT. We are continuing to recruit, hire and train the team, and while we are making great progress we are still not fully staffed.We need to stay at it and get the team full. Thanks to the teams that are recruiting, hiring and training new folks.

At New Cambria I had a great discussion that covered everything from department direction, funding, safety, and health care, but what I wanted to highlight was the safety talk the crew was having when I got there. 

They were talking about edge rutting and going through the Risked Based Assessment for the work. We always want everyone to plan well and be prepared for any situation that might pop up. Well, I heard one I had not thought about. The crew was planning  a way to handle Amish buggies in a flagging operation. They had seen some problems with young Amish boys driving erratically and not staying in their lane and were discussing a strategy on how to deal with it. 

It just goes to show you every situation is unique.  I can not over stress the importance of planning to be safe and trying to think of everything that might occur. 

I had a great day in the Northeast! Take the time to plan to be safe.


.

No comments:

Post a Comment