According to the National Safety Council, there were 891 fatalities and 37,701 injuries in work zones in 2022.
Remember to slow down and respect work zones. Here's a shout out to the many in our industry who wear the green vests every day. People in work zones are your coworkers, family members, and friends. Slow down and respect the green and orange!
Driving involves a lot of terrifying physics, if you think about it.
Every day you get behind a wheel, even if you never go above 40 mph, you're still hurtling along at a literally breakneck speed. The forces involved if you were to slam into something -- a telephone pole, another car, a building -- are nauseating to think about. Our bodies are fragile in comparison.
Driving is almost guaranteed to be the most hazardous thing you do today. So remember to #justdrive. The life you save may be your own. Or your kid's. Or maybe the grandma in the car across from you.
#JustDrive.
The MUTCD (Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways) was updated in late 2023, so it's a good time to review the parts that affect the broadband industry the most directly. One of those is what high visibility apparel is appropriate to wear.
Make sure employees are wearing a vest that meets Performance Class 2 or 3 of ANSI/ISEA 107-2015. The easiest way to tell is to check the tag on the vest. Check out this example of an ANSI compliant tag (this is the source, great for more background reading on the subject).
If the tag says ANSI-ISEA 107-2015, you're good to go. If it says 107-2020, that's OK too. However, if it says 107-2010, that means the vest has done its time and now needs to be updated. The vest must be worn whenever a worker is within a "temporary traffic control" (TTC) zone, which includes time when a vehicle is parked along the side of a road or within a construction zone.
The changes to the high vis apparel might seem subtle, but the research that goes into development is substantial and backed by science. And you just might save an employee's life by making the switch.
Who cares if there's storage in front of the electrical panel?
What does if matter if there's a box in front of the exit door?
Why do we have to check these exit lights every month?
When we have a dozen other priorities throughout the day and someone piles on a couple more things like this onto your to-do list, it can make you feel pretty resistant.
But there's a quote that gets thrown around every once in a while that really grabs your attention, no matter how you might feel about safety inspections or OSHA:
OSHA rules are written in blood.
With the Baltimore bridge collapse in the news, it's a good time to reflect on why we have these rules in place.
We've also just passed the anniversary of an infamous disaster, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in New York City on March 25th, 1911. Because the exits were locked to prevent workers from taking too many breaks, 146 employees lost their lives to a fire that started in the factory.
Sometimes it takes loss like this to lead to change in regulations that save lives down the line.
Many of these rules that seem cumbersome or frustrating are in place because someone lost their life or were seriously injured before the rule was put in place.
If you want to learn more, here's an almost four minute video about how the NFPA's Life Safety Code can be directly traced back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
Just remember... rules that might seem annoying now can save lives later.
Every once in a while we like to send a reminder out about all the programs we offer. Sometimes in the compliance world, things can be out of sight, out of mind. As long as no one is bothering you about your program, you must be on the straight and narrow -- right?
That's not always the case, and that's why we're here. One of those services we're outlining today is our DOT administrative check-up. This is something we can easily do remotely for you. What we're offering to do for member companies is to go over all your DOT paperwork to make sure everything is shipshape. There's lots of components to a DOT program, and a lot of it can be overwhelming. Maybe you've outsourced part of this to a third party, or maybe you've decided to take this on yourself. Either way, it's worth it to get an extra set of eyes on things to see how things are going.
Here's the checklist we've devised to determine how your program stands:
DOT standards / checklist
- Are driver qualification files kept separate from general employee files? Are they reasonably secure?
- Do driver files have all documents needed?
- How are all of these renewal dates tracked? (med card, MVR, driver’s license, etc)
- If needed (for non-CDL drivers), is the person administering the driving test qualified?
- All random testing standards followed?
- How are ELD’s managed?
- Are drivers certifying their logs at a reasonable interval?
- Are unassigned driving events logged and assigned?
- Are all driver supervisors trained in reasonable suspicion (60 minutes alcohol abuse training; 60 for controlled substances)?
- How are daily vehicle inspections managed?
- Are DOT inspections signed and returned? Is a file kept of all DOT inspections?
- How are fleet annual DOT inspections managed?
- Is the person who does the annual brake inspections qualified to do so? Is that qualification on file?
- Is DataQ’s checked regularly?
- Familiarity with different levels of DOT inspections?
- Do you send in your FMCSA MCS-150 biennial renewal at the required times?
- How is the fleet managed in general? Dates on required services, etc.
Feel free to use this checklist on your own as a resource as well, but if you want that extra security, feel free to contact TT&S to discuss further.
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| Nice weather loading up on Monday... before wintery Tuesday. |
29 vendors.
25 sessions.
And all of this accomplished with yet another year of winter weather warning on Tuesday morning.
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| All ready for everyone, despite the wind and snow. |
Tuesday Kick-off
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| Art Thompson, Executive Director of WSI |
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| Dot Frank's "Spare Change" |
Dot Frank was our second speaker, with her topic on how to anticipate and ultimately embrace change. She shared her experience with change in her life and explained some strategies to harness the positive elements of change rather than be defeated by it. She left us with an inspiring message that change can be an opportunity to learn and experience new things, and with this attitude we can find ourselves much more successful.
Attendees then were able to join the vendor social, which included door prizes, the tech wars competition, and the opportunity to meet, greet, and learn more about our great vendor lineup. SRT gained the prize and bragging rights this year for the tech wars!
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| First place Tech Wars Winners from SRT |
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| Second place Tech Wars Winners from United Communications |
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| Third place Tech Wars Winners from NDTC |
Wednesday Sessions and Social
The next day attendees broke up into their preferred sessions, which included four different tracks. Sessions included many different topics, including:
- OTDR Testing
- Email Etiquette
- Enabling the IoT: A WLAN Security Crucial Conversations Wake-up Call
- Fiber Splicing and Troubleshooting
- Service Order Start to Finish - iVUE, Scheduler, and Appsuite
- Mapwise: Network Connectivity - That's Spliced How?
... and many more!
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| A spirited Andy Walding session |
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| Jane Wigen presents a session on retirement |
While this was going on, TT&S, along with the support of a group of member company volunteers, also offered local career academy and technical center high schoolers the opportunity to learn more about the broadband industry.
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| Student swag bag member company donations |
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| Student swag bag contents from DRN |
Their agenda included a session with Andy Walding about the how the Internet actually works, a question and answer session with industry HR professionals and field professionals, and a hands-on portion with Sean Kelly from Light Brigade and Steve Wolles from AFL. We're excited about this new addition to the conference, as in future years this will allow member companies to sponsor local high schoolers to attend, perhaps igniting the spark that leads them to seek out an internship or job with their local broadband co-op down the line.
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| Sean Kelly's hands-on demonstration for students |
We also held a recognition luncheon where we had the opportunity to thank all the wonderful board members, vendors, volunteers, and everyone else who came together to make the conference and TT&S in general a success.
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| Recognition luncheon |
Wednesday evening saw another vendor social, as well as more door prizes and the cornhole tournament. The winners this year were from Venture Communications, and second place went to a team from Consolidated.
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| First place cornhole winners |
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| Second place cornhole winners |
Thursday Morning Speakers
On Thursday morning TT&S introduced a couple of excellent speakers. Luke Kapella with the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation along with his sidekick General Lee (a very well-behaved black lab) gave a fantastic presentation on illicit drugs in North Dakota and what techs should watch out for when going into private residences. He especially noted that some substances, especially fentanyl, could even be fatal if touched, so techs need to be wary of these substances and watch out for these clues.
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| Luke Kapella's presentation |
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| General Lee stealing the show in the background |
The second speaker, Beth Warford, founder of Pretty Loaded, gave a presentation on self-defense and on how to carry yourself to avoid confrontation. She gave practical information that anyone can use to help keep themselves safe.
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| Beth Warford's contact info |
Overall, the conference was a success, and it was absolutely great to get everyone together again for another year, despite the weather not cooperating... as usual. Thanks to everyone who helped us to coordinate the conference, attended, or simply provided moral support from afar. We appreciate you all!
As we slowly slide into warmer weather, the temptation to spring clean, start that big renovation project, and begin bigger work operations outdoors again begins afresh. As we wade through the messy spring thaw, it's good to be reminded about how to haul equipment all over again. Let's make sure that we do things the safe way for another successful busy season.
Here's some things to keep in mind about hauling cargo and equipment.
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| So pretty much everything this picture isn't. |
Also make sure to inspect everything before you begin your trip, and during the trip if it's of any significant distance. You'll want to be inspecting that the cargo or equipment being hauled is secure, your securing devices, and that all tiedowns are taut.
It is the law to make sure you are securing your cargo and equipment before hauling, and not doing so could seriously hurt someone, so make sure to take all of this to heart.
If you'd like more in-depth training on this, TT&S does have an entire training on the subject, to either present for you or to be used as training materials for your staff to use. We'd be more than happy to help you out either way.
Did you know there are four particular states of mind that have been found to lead to incidents?
When you're rushing, frustrated, fatigued, or lulled into a sense of safety with complacency, you can find yourself more likely become involved in an incident if you're doing a safety-sensitive task. That could be anything from working with a hand tool (hammer to the thumb -- ouch!), setting up an extension ladder, driving, or operating heavy equipment, such as a forklift.
1. Rushing - When you're in a hurry, mistakes can multiply fast, and more than that, your mind is probably not on the task at hand. You're probably hurrying along for a reason. You're worried about what's next. Are you late for something or is a deadline approaching for work? Regardless of the reason, you're more worried about what's coming next than what's going on right in front of you.
2. Frustration - We've all been there. Frustration can build up from seemingly small annoyances until there's one that finally breaks the camel's back. And when we get to that point, we're not so much worried about doing the job right anymore, we're ready to let that frustration have an outlet. Learn to monitor yourself before you get to this point. Walking away before you get here is always the better choice.
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4. Complacency - This one is maybe less known and probably the sneakiest.
Very sneaky.
People are absolutely great at adapting to their environment, even when their environment is high risk. What can happen is that those that work in high risk environments -- like roofers at height or tank cleaners in confined spaces -- slowly become used to the risks and fail to appreciate their environments as risky anymore. Day in and day out, the risks begin to become the everyday backdrop to their work lives. Sometimes it's important to rattle our own cages and remind ourselves of the true dangers of these risks, even if it's ever-present for these employees every day.
These mental states are normal, human experiences and they're not going to be avoided all the time. But it's important to be vigilant for them in yourselves, your coworkers, and your employees, if you're a supervisor. If you do, you just may prevent an injury or even save a life.
So, do we need to be worried about lead exposure? How seriously do we need to be taking all those jokes about eating lead paint chips?
Here's a video under three minutes that explains the symptoms of lead exposure, the activities that may expose you to lead, and how you can protect yourself.
According to Mayo Clinic, symptoms of lead poisoning in adults include:
The group with by far the highest exposure is children (more on that here), but we like to focus on occupational exposure around here, so according to the CDC here's some instances where you might be exposed to lead in the workplace:
"Although children are at greater risk from lead exposure, adult exposures can also result in harmful health effects.
Renovation involving lead based paint should only be undertaken after proper training, or with the use of certified personnel (see EPA’s Safe Renovation brochure at http://www2.epa.gov/lead/lead-safecertified-guide-renovate-right.
Adults can also be exposed during certain hobbies and activities where lead is used [CDC 2011a]. Some of the more common examples include
Tobacco smoke is a source of lead [Apostolou et al. 2012; Mannino et al. 2005; Mannino et al. 2003]."
So unless you're tampering with the bottom of your Stanley cups, there's not too much to worry about, but lead exposure in general is not something to take lightly. Make sure you know your facts.
Resource Roundup
Heart Health: Winter can be hard on the body in surprising ways, particularly when we think about heart health. It's somewhat common knowledge that shoveling snow comes with an elevated risk of heart attack if there are some risk factors present, but many might not know why.
This article from the NSC goes over the specifics. It boils down to the fact that sudden exertion after long periods of being sedentary can put a lot of strain on the heart. Remember to take it slow shoveling, especially if it's the most you've done for a while!
Immune System: It's not just your imagination; people get more illnesses through the cold winter months. According to this article from Northwestern Medicine, this is due to a variety of factors, such as the body not being as effective at fighting off viruses when cold air enters the respiratory system, and lower indoor humidity levels. Take precautions such as washing your hands often to help prevent the spread of illnesses.
Body Temperature: While we've been enjoying nicer temperatures over the past while, we had a pretty cold snap earlier in January. The risk of hypothermia and frostbite is higher as the temperature drops. From this CDC article, early signs of hypothermia include "shivering, exhaustion, confusion, fumbling hands, memory loss, slurred speech, and drowsiness." Early signs of frostbite include "a white or grayish-yellow skin area, skin that feels unusually firm or waxy, and numbness."
Respiratory System: Cold weather can also take a toll on your respiratory system if you have a pre-existing respiratory issue, such as asthma or COPD. This article from the Mayo Clinic goes into further detail, but if you do have a lung disease, take care to keep an extra supply of inhaler or other equipment and medication on hand and stay out of the cold as much as possible.
While we're all looking forward to getting out of the gray days of winter, the health risks associated with the cold might not be the first things on our mind. We should keep these issues in mind while we continue to dream of spring.
According to the National Safety Council, there were 891 fatalities and 37,701 injuries in work zones in 2022. Remember to slow down and re...
