Davey Tree Flipbooks

September/October 2014 | 21 Road to Zero W hen it comes to the importance of safety, John Tokarczyk sums it up: "Safety is important to all of us at Davey, from climbers in the trees to the president and COO." And when the president and COO himself, Pat Covey, along with Mark Vaughn and Jack Bloomfield, addressed 750 tree trimmers on the DTE Energy property, he proved just that. Davey employees attended a Safety Summit in late April to discuss Davey's philosophy on safety. The DTE Energy employees left the summit with a better understanding on the absolute importance of safety at Davey, including the Road to Zero approach and the appropriate way to react in an unsafe situation. "The Safety Summit was an amazing opportunity to discuss workplace safety with every Davey employee working on the DTE account," explains Jack Bloomfield, vice president of northern utility operations. "DTE has set the goal of zero worker incidents. With their leadership, IBEW's cooperation and the line clearance trimmers, we were able to present our philosophy on safety." Over the three-day long summit, employees were reinforced with the following: Safety is of the utmost importance at Davey, and each employee, no matter his or her title or rank, must be practicing safe measures at all times. "Safety is paramount, and we cannot accept any attitude that is contrary to that," says John Tokarczyk, account manager for the north central region utility services. Throughout the summit, senior leadership from the DTE account, IBEW Local 17, Davey and various other contractors addressed the group. They discussed a major theme— what a safe work culture looks like. And the main idea of the summit was covered again: Safety Starts at the Top Jack Bloomfield presents during the Safety Summit. F or Harold Danielson, job and safety training have been paramount in his crews' recent achievement— tallying more than 500 recordable, incident-free days while clearing vegetation from around power lines in South Carolina. Danielson, a general foreman, has spent 17 years preaching the benefits of safe work practices at Davey. "Production is great, but you can get all the production in the world and one accident will knock all that production out the window," Danielson says. "I try to set a good example as a role model for my crew by showing that safety is something I believe in, so they'll be more apt to believe in it." Danielson oversees seven crew members who maintain the vegetation around the Combined Utilities lines in and around Easley, A Focus on Safe Behaviors Leads to Less Injury South Carolina. The work group had achieved 548 work days, not calendar days, as of May 5 without an OSHA-Recordable Injury since March 2012. Danielson starts each morning by talking about a safety topic of particular interest to the given day or job. One recent morning, given the rising temperatures and onset of warmer weather, Danielson started with a talk about how to stay hydrated and how to recognize the signs of dehydration. He instructs the crew on simple measures to ward off heat stress, such as avoiding the heaviest manual labor of a job during the hottest part of the day and eating light meals. "One of the big things I do that really helps out the employees is counting out these days," Danielson says. "That actually gives the employees some ownership over their safety and gives them a constant reminder of a goal." Danielson works to observe each of his crews a minimum once or twice a day. During his job observations, he looks for the big things but pays "special attention to the small things," such as proper distance between work signs. "If you're looking for the small things, you'll foresee the big things. If you teach your men to pay attention to the small things, they'll be more likely to see the big things." When training, attention to detail remains key for Danielson's crews. To reduce struck-by injuries, Danielson ensures the crews are trained to place cones clearly marking the drop zone. "Harold is one who doesn't just talk safety, he truly believes in it," says Johnny Wilson, manager of field safety support. "It is a local, grass-roots effort. These guys have made up their mind themselves that they need to do it, and it's about them and going home to their families at the end of each day." "Every time everyone goes home the same way they came to work, that's a successful day," Danielson adds. "Often employees will work safely because they think they have to. I'm trying to develop a culture in which they work safely because they want to." Everyone must be working as one team to create safety, including the highest level of executives down to newly hired trainees. "The summit left a lot of people thinking about their jobs and how to make it home safely every night," says one attendee Clay Carlson, general foreman for north central region utility services. "The employees who work directly under me hear me preach safety all of the time, but it sinks in when it comes from up above. This isn't just some company policy, but it's the actual culture of our industry."

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