Connections

Issue 2 • Volume 3 • April 10

SAFETY

Safety Initiatives 2010
By Todd Swenson, vice president, safety and risk management, and Lee Cole, director of health and safety

At the beginning of each year, we each set goals for different reasons. Whether it is personal, for work or just plain having fun, we set these objectives with the hope to achieve a higher level of performance in whatever we do.

Because safety transcends everything, it is important that we remember to include this in Oldcastle Materials Group’s (OMG) goal setting exercise.

Based on our historical performance, the corporation has identified certain areas that, if given more attention, will result in a significant improvement in our overall safety performance. Those areas are: Fleet and Equipment Safety, Citations per Inspection, Safety Leadership Team Process and the OMG Safety Core Values. The initiatives outlined below will help improve our performance in 2010:

Improve our Fleet and Equipment Safety through:
1. Focused training for using specific vehicles and equipment.
2. Improved selection process for equipment operators and drivers.
3. Positive behavior reinforcement to motivate our drivers and equipment operators to do the right things.
4. Striving to prevent slips and falls from vehicles and mobile equipment by using the "three points of contact" practice.
Maintain our commitment to 5-S, with a goal of reducing our Citations per Inspection.
1. Ensure that every facility has an ongoing 5-S program in place.
2. Sustain our 5-S program in order to create good work practices and, as a result, form lasting habits to ensure compliance in all areas.
  1. The 5-S program should be a component of the required daily MSHA walk around inspection.
Increase employee involvement through participation in the Safety Leadership Team process. This approach to risk reduction and elimination is a vital part of OMG's safety philosophy of "beyond compliance," and we want every Oldcastle Materials employee to regularly participate in this program.
Strive for 100 percent commitment of the OMG Safety Core Values and CRH Fundamentals of Fatality Elimination. Please remember our Safety Core Values are:
1. Zero Fatalities, including the CRH Fundamentals of Fatality Elimination
2. Zero Incidents
3. An Employee Driven Safety Culture

Please help us raise our safety performance to a higher level by continuing your efforts to reach the goal of a zero incident culture.

Thank you for your help.

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