Back to School: Keep Safe Around School Buses

It's that time of year again -- parents are stocking up on school supplies, kids are sighing and dreaming of an endless summer vacation, and school bus drivers are gearing up to get back on the road.

Keep these things in mind for driving around school buses to keep everyone safe.

Motorists must stop from either direction when a school bus displays alternating flashing lights or when a stop sign control arm is extended.

Motorists may not proceed until:

- The red lights are deactivated and the stop is retracted,

- The bus driver signals them to proceed, or

- The bus resumes motion. 

This video shows a district that implemented cameras to detect when drivers drive past school bus stop signs, showing many instances of drivers ignoring the stop sign.

  

Be extra aware around school buses. They must stop at railroad crossings, and they may make other unanticipated stops. Do NOT pass if the red lights are activated or the stop sign is extended.

Children have lost their lives from unaware drivers -- don't let it happen on your watch!

 

The Four Dangerous States of Mind

It's been a while since we've revisited what the four dangerous states of mind are, and it's one of those topics that sometimes gets overlooked. It's not attached to any specific activity (trenching, climbing a ladder) and nowhere does OSHA say that you have to talk about any of this. But these are an underlying root cause of many, if not most, incidents.

Our earlier post goes into detail on each state of mind, but we'll add them here too for a review:

- Rushing - If you move too fast, you can make mistakes and miss hazards.

- Frustration - Easy to lose focus, get swept up into emotion, and miss details.

- Fatigue - When you're tired, it's hard to keep your mind on the task at hand.

- Complacency - when you've done the same thing hundreds of times before, it can become background noise.... even when it's hazardous.

Now, making sure that your mind is always on task is never going to be a replacement for a robust safety program with strong training and controls, but it is an important piece of the puzzle not to be overlooked. Companies can step in by implementing measure to emphasize employee mental health, ensuring deadlines are realistic, and making sure training is repeated enough to combat complacency.
 

Keep safety top of mind every time! 

  

5 Tips for Safety Walkthrough Success

 

Everyone loves it when the safety walkthrough crew comes around to check on their working environment. Extra points if they're carrying a clipboard (always ominous), stopping frequently to discuss things in low voices, and making a lot of notes. 

While you might not get everyone's attitudes to turn around about safety walkthroughs right away, there are some ways to make them a little more successful.

Let's back up a few steps before we share our tips. First, what is a safety walkthrough and why are they being done?

Safety walkthroughs are an opportunity for personnel to make sure all the safety requirements are being fulfilled in a facility. They are often paired with fire extinguisher inspections (should be done monthly) and exit sign checks (monthly too), but they check on a variety of different components, depending on your facility and hazards. Common denominators also usually include exits and electrical panels (are they blocked?), general housekeeping, and inspection records on specific equipment like forklifts.

Many checklists exist and TT&S is happy to provide you with options if you're seeking one.

However, these safety walkthroughs also provide a great opportunity to think about hazards that maybe haven't been raised yet or that have escaped the checklist over the years. Let's talk about how to get the most out of safety walkthroughs.

1. Schedule along with requirements

A goal without a deadline can become pretty hard to execute. However, OSHA requirements can help set the pace. As mentioned above, both fire extinguishers and exit signs must be checked once a month, so many companies set up a monthly walkthrough. Someone will be going through anyway to check the extinguishers and signs, so may as well do the whole thing. This is also a great way to execute "habit stacking," which is adding a new habit by incorporating it into an already existing routine.

Quarterly inspections are another popular cadence for the walkthroughs. If that pace works better for your company, then you could plan to schedule a safety walkthrough along with every third fire extinguisher / exit sign inspection. 

2. Rotate group members

Many times it is one facilities person who is conducting these walkthroughs, but this could be a great opportunity to leverage the unique knowledge and experience of your employees. Have one or two other people go along with the regular inspector, and rotate through the company. You might be surprised at what surfaces. Could be that someone from accounting served on their volunteer fire crew and has a lot to suggest, and everyone is usually happy to contribute their expertise to the cause.

3. Cross-training opportunity for employees

Along the same vein, this can create cross-training and even networking opportunities for employees across the company. Maybe the new receptionist hasn't spent much time in the warehouse, but after the walkthrough is better prepared to answer an unexpected question. Or maybe employees from two different department that don't interact much have an opportunity to get to know each other and work together on a safety solution. A win-win all around.

4. Leave space for the unexpected 

It's great to start with a checklist of items that always need to be checked, but this is a perfect opportunity to also think about hazards that haven't made it on the list yet. Especially if you're having other employees rotate on your safety walkthroughs, you may find there are new items for consideration. 

5. Have a plan for what happens next 

One of the greatest pitfalls is having a productive walkthrough with action items addressing several safety issues, and then having that list sit on someone's desk for months because a procedure hasn't been established for dealing with the aftermath. It's important to know whether decisions need to be made about how to deal with certain items, who will follow the throughline on making sure the decisions get made, as well as who will follow up to make sure the final changes are implemented. If it can be made a recurring agenda item on leadership or facilities meetings, many times that helps to move these things forward.

 

There you have it! One of those win-win-win arrangements that tends to reap a lot of great benefits, but like with any other change, can be hard to initiate, maintain, and get buy-in from employees. Over time, we suspect you'll see great success from a system like this, and if you have any questions about the process, please feel free to reach out. 

 

AGC Survey shows Work Zones Riskier

The AGC (Associated General Contractors of America) has reported results of a survey from their membership regarding work zones. Soberingly, they reported that sixty percent of highway construction firms reported at least one crash in their work zone over the past year.

That's over half of firms that reported a crash within the last year!

Nationally and in the midwest region they also reported that work zones seem to be riskier than they were one year ago.

In the midst of the "100 deadliest days of summer," so named for the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day where vehicle crashes and fatalities spike, especially amongst teen drivers, it's important to remember this especially risky component of driving.

As we always reinforce here at TT&S, respect the green and orange. Employees in work zones have just as much a right to a safe workplace as everyone else.

Check out the report here for more detail: AGC highway work zone safety survey results

National Safety Council Weighs in on Top Injury Categories

The NSC has deemed June the National Safety Month, and it provides resources for businesses and safety professionals for each week of the month. For this year's first week of resources, this fact sheet was shared detailing the top three causes of injuries that resulted in days away from work. 

It's worth everyone's time to take a look and see if there are risks in your business that might contribute to these injuries, as well as have a conversation with your team on how they could be prevented.

 

 

Three Ways to Make Safety Training Stick

 

You sat through the safety training. Great! You're done. Time to get on with your day and your life. Maybe it was a nice break to sit in an air conditioned room and hang out for a while before business as usual. Or maybe you feel the weight of 27 emails rattling around your inbox awaiting response. Either way, now that safety training is over you can set your attention on other things.

Except in the safety world, we don't want thoughts of safety to end when the safety PowerPoint is closed. We want you to take this stuff into your daily life and apply it.

So how do we reconcile these very real constraints on our attention, time, and energy while trying to keep safety top of mind?

Enter "stickiness." How do we make the training stick?

 

Most everyone thinks it's engaging training. And, yes, that's important too. Having a good instructor presenting solid material is key, but the story doesn't end there. That's just attention-getting. How do you make this stuff stick?

Here's some thoughts.

1. Repeat it later: Spaced Repetition

In the learning and development world, spaced repetition is repeating key points of learning at intervals after the training. So, this would look like taking a minute during a team meeting or sending out a summary of the key training points a couple days after training, and then maybe a week after that. That repetition just on the edge of forgetting is what makes this process work.

2.  Model it

OK, this one is harder. Employees have quite a few influences on them and one of them is their management leaders, especially their front line supervisor. If you model the behavior talked about in the training, you're working to create a culture that embraces those safety behaviors. Once you've influenced team norms and the safety behavior is just what everyone does every day, then you're usually on easy street, with teams regulating themselves with only a few reminders here and there. It's sometimes a hard start, but well worth the payoff.

3. Mentorship models

Did you know the best way to retain something is having to teach it? Enter a mentorship model for new employees. Pairing an experienced employee with someone newer is a great opportunity for both. The new employee gets on the job training, and the experienced employee gets to recall and cement what they know about the job, safety behaviors included. 

If you go this route, you might benefit from a little formalization, having checklists of everything the experienced employer can show the new employee, and making sure those safety requirements are part of the drill.

Sometimes having those safety requirements documented in a mentorship program can also spark new conversations about them. Maybe the experienced employee wasn't aware of some of the expectations and could even recommend safer or more efficient ways of doing things. Either way, it's a win-win-win.

 If you've got a safety training program, that is great! You're doing the right things. Taking these few extra steps to make the training sticky will only pay dividends on an already important and positive decision.

Work Zone Awareness Week

Late April marked National Work Zone Awareness Week, to coincide with the uptick in roadway construction zones across the country as the weather warms up.

 

Remember to always respect work zones, following along with road barriers and signage. While we've all had the frustrating feeling of seeing a construction zone up ahead, there are lives at stake when we don't comply.

According to the National Safety Council (source) there were almost 900 fatalities and about 40,000 injuries in work zones in the year 2023. All preventable!

 

There are very few, if any, activities we do on a daily basis that are more dangerous than driving, and the risk is elevated in work zones. Pay attention, follow the signs, and keep everyone safe. 

 

 

Trenching Incident Claims a Life

We tend to hammer a lot on trenching and shoring safety, but sometimes we worry it still doesn't get enough attention. So we wanted to highlight an incident shared by OSHA that claimed the life of one worker and left another with serious injuries. Overall the company involved was fined $4.6 million.

The workers were actually not IN the trench at the time of the incident but working close by when the trench collapsed causing them to fall inside and become trapped. This incident underlines a common misconception: even if you don't have employees inside a trench, you still need to ensure the trench is not in danger of collapse using all the skills a trenching competent person would normally use: soil classification, controls implementation, and constant site inspection.

Here's the report from OSHA to read more.

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

April is distracted driving awareness month.

Guaranteed, you've seen examples of distracted driving before. A driver next to you scrolling on their phone. A vehicle weaving in front of you and when you pass, you see they're having an angry phone conversation.

It can even seem pretty benign. A parent reaching back to adjust a car seat strap or retrieve a kid's favorite toy.

But that's distraction too.

According to the NHTSA (National Highway Safety Administration) there were 3,275 fatalities due to distracted driving just in 2023. These fatalities were preventable.

When we think about avoiding distracted driving, we all know what we're supposed to do. Put phones away. Adjust seats before you go. Make sure children and pets are well situated before starting out.

Rather than focusing on these, take some time to hear about someone's story in losing a child due to distracted driving with this video below. Your small decision while driving can affect someone for the rest of their lives, or even end their life. 

 

 

Construction Fatal Four Hazards

The time of year is upon us when we start getting antsy to go out there and get some construction and trenching done, let alone being ready to start up those home projects again.

Did you know that OSHA has identified four particular hazards to pay attention to in the construction world? They're serious enough that OSHA has even called them the Fatal Four: falls, caught-in or -between, struck-by, and electrocution.

A couple years ago we released blog posts on each of these hazards, and it would be a good idea to brush up on these this time of year, especially if you have had any close calls with one of these hazards:

 Falls / Working from Heights

Caught-in / Between Hazards 

Struck-by Hazards 

Electrical Hazards 

We know everyone's ready to get going again, but take a moment to make sure everyone's got safety top of mind first!