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Powerful Safety Messages: Spoken and Silent

Battling Invisible Distractions

By Jeffrey Sullivan

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

By Marilyn M. Velez, MPH

Building an ATV/UTV Training Program for Utilities and Contractors

Utility task vehicles (UTVs) and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are quickly becoming the preferred motorized equipment for lineworkers to use to access difficult terrain for necessary inspection and repair of infrastructure. And although they are exceptionally capable, these vehicles – identifiable by their large off-road tires, relatively small size and light weight – pose certain challenges for both utilities and contractors who wish to use them on job sites.

Line and Substation Insulator Refresher

Years ago, a rare event happened in the service area of the company I was working for at the time. Sea fog had rolled in and blanketed most of the system along the coastline where the generation was located. It contaminated the insulators and tripped major circuits everywhere. All of the substation and line crews worked hard to clean the insulators and get the system restored.

FR/AR Clothing Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Overcome ‘Burnt Toast Syndrome’ to Improve Safety and Training Results

The Biological Basis of Complacency

The adverse effects of complacency in the workplace have long been an ongoing source of concern in the safety community. What is not agreed upon is the reason for this problem. In my own experience, I have noticed that safety professionals use the term “complacency” in different ways to refer to …

Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?

Let’s kick off this article with a definition of what “MAD” means in the utility sector – and it does not mean that we’re upset with you. The word is actually an acronym that stands for minimum approach distance, which is the calculated safe working distance that provides worker protection when working on or in the vicinity of energized lines and equipment.

Fire Extinguisher Use and Safety for Utility Workers

Officer George Brentar, a 22-year veteran of the Euclid, Ohio, police force, died October 10, 2007, when his car skidded into a pole and caught fire on an entrance ramp to Interstate 90. Officer Brentar had spotted a speeding motorist and was attempting to catch up to the vehicle when his car hydroplaned. The right rear end hit a pole and the car immediately burst into flames, with Officer Brentar trapped inside.

Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?

Fire Extinguisher Use and Safety for Utility Workers

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Building an ATV/UTV Training Program for Utilities and Contractors

Lagging Indicators, Leading Indicators … Let’s Start Over

FR/AR Clothing Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 29 CFR 1910.132, OSHA clearly states that personal protective equipment and appropriate training are required for individuals working in utilities, electrical petroleum, oil and gas exploration, and other industries where there is a danger of being injured by arc flash or flash fire.

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Members of the OSHA Georgia Struck-By Alliance and the Associated General Contractors of Georgia Inc. (AGC Georgia) will join thousands of employers and workers during this year’s National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW), which takes place April 26-30. This year’s theme is “Drive Safe. Work Safe…

Overcome ‘Burnt Toast Syndrome’ to Improve Safety and Training Results

I have a beautiful and caring better half. She is always there for me. One of the things she does for me is make breakfast. Now, I am an old country boy, so any old breakfast won’t do. I want meat, eggs, potatoes and toast, and she is happy to prepare them for me.

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iP CONFERENCE

EDUCATION

Social Networks

T&D PowerSkills is a comprehensive lineworker training program that focuses on electrical lineworker principles and safety-related work practices performed in the field. Apprentices, journeymen and lineworkers in between will benefit from T&D PowerSkills training units. The program is des…

Safety Management

Lagging Indicators, Leading Indicators … Let’s Start Over

What do indicators really mean? Occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals continue to debate this issue. Can indicators really measure performance of an OSH program? On one side are lagging indicators, which include common markers such as total recordable incident rate (TRIR); days away, restricted and transfer rate; and experience modification rate. These are lagging indicators because they measure after-the-fact occurrences. Data measured after the fact may be a lens into an OSH program’s failings and offer opportunities for improvement. For many years, organizations and OSH professionals have believed that these indicators tell the whole story – that low lagging indicators mean the OSH program is effective and employees are working safely, and high ones mean the opposite, leading to a heavy focus on decreasing the numbers or striving for zero.

Overcome ‘Burnt Toast Syndrome’ to Improve Safety and Training Results

The Biological Basis of Complacency

My Shocking Awakening: Lessons Learned From a High-Voltage Contact

Why is this happening? It hurts! Don’t let go!

These are some of the thoughts that ran through my mind on a day in late 2015 when an induction contact surged through and around my body for roughly 30 seconds.

Lagging Indicators, Leading Indicators … Let’s Start Over

Overcome ‘Burnt Toast Syndrome’ to Improve Safety and Training Results

The Biological Basis of Complacency

My Shocking Awakening: Lessons Learned From a High-Voltage Contact

Why is this happening? It hurts! Don’t let go! These are some of the thoughts that ran through my mind on a day in late 2015 when an induction contact surged through and around my body for roughly 30 seconds.

Leadership Development

A Lineworker’s Three Safety Superpowers

Workplace safety requires each of us to do our part to keep ourselves and our co-workers free from injury and illness. To meet this goal, we must understand the tools we have and know how to use them. Let’s look at a lineman’s life, for example. He can climb poles, float through the air in a buck…

A Lineworker’s Three Safety Superpowers

Creating a Culture of Safety Through Elite Leadership

Leaders play a pivotal role in creating a safe work environment that brings out the best in their people and produces quality results. And this doesn’t just mean leaders at the top but at every level of the organization. Leadership isn’t a difference maker – it is the difference maker.

Lessons Learned from the Tenerife Airport Disaster

On March 27, 1977, two 747 passenger jets crashed on a runway on the Spanish island of Tenerife, killing 583 people. It remains one of the worst disasters in aviation history.

Human Error and Organizational Resilience

From 1980 through 2010, safety performance emphasis was on accident prevention through the application of controls. We learned about the hierarchy of controls (elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls and personal protective equipment) and the multiple barrier prin…

Worksite Safety

Building an ATV/UTV Training Program for Utilities and Contractors

FR/AR Clothing Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?

Building an ATV/UTV Training Program for Utilities and Contractors

FR/AR Clothing Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?

Tailgate Topics

Powerful Safety Messages: Spoken and Silent

In September 1994, my career in safety and human performance had yet to begin. At the time, accepting a temporary position in safety was my way to “get out of Dodge,” which was the Customer Information Center at the local gas utility. Having spent four years as a call center representative and another four as a supervisor in that same call center, I distinctly remember the day that the company’s safety and training manager offered me a temporary opportunity to help rebuild their safety program. He barely had the words out of his mouth – “How would you like to …?” – when I emphatically said …

Patricia Fischer, CSP, CUSA

Battling Invisible Distractions

Over the years, the utility industry has spent countless hours and dollars on worker safety efforts. By now, I think just about everyone reading this Tailgate Topic has attended a safety seminar or meeting where a new concept was explained, a new acronym was released or a new form was rolled out….

Jeffrey Sullivan

The End of the Day

Safety is an around-the-clock job. However, there are certain times – like the end of the workday – when safety needs to be given extra attention. In the beginning of the workday, worker complacency is typically at its lowest. That’s because we may not yet be familiar with the day’s work, which …

Bob Dunderdale, CUSP

Watch Your Step

Luis Ortega, CUSP

Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Marilyn M. Velez, MPH

Combating Drowsy Driving

R. Neal Gracey

Is Safety a Religion?

Lidia Dilley Jacobson

Are You Setting a Good Example?

Terry Ehli

Frontline Fundamentals

The Safety Paradox: My Day at the Safety Conference

How Common is Common Sense?

Hazards Do Not Discriminate – Nor Should We

Assessments: Highlights and Implementation

Train the Trainer 101

Writing an ATV/UTV Operating Safety Policy

A Practical Guide to Using Outrigger Pads

Understanding Radio Frequency Energy Exposure

Trailers, Brakes and Common Usage Errors

Utility Safety Q&A

June-July 2021 Q&A

April-May 2021 Q&A

February-March 2021 Q&A

December 2020-January 2021 Q&A

OSHA Articles

Minimum Approach Distances: What’s Required?

Why are Job Briefings and Risk Assessments Important?

What are OSHA’s Training Requirements?

When OSHA Electric Power Safety Standards Apply

Voice of Experience

Overhead Line Work, Then and Now

System Operations: Who’s in Charge?

Sharing My Story: I’m a Male Breast Cancer Survivor

Lone Worker Limitations

Frontline Fundamentals

The Safety Paradox: My Day at the Safety Conference

Here’s a hypothetical and exaggerated scenario about a day I spent attending a safety conference (the iP Utility Safety Conference & Expo, of course!). It begins with me watching a safety glove demonstration. I watch a person put on a glove, crush a wine glass, stab themselves in the hand wit…

How Common is Common Sense?

How did you learn that a stovetop could be hot and burn you? Some would say that’s common sense, that human beings have an innate awareness of hazards, yet I’m guessing many of you learned the hard way – by touching a hot stove. What about brushing your teeth? Have you ever hurt yourself doing t…

Hazards Do Not Discriminate – Nor Should We

Hazards do not discriminate – nor should we. We do not necessarily have to like each other to work safely, but we do have to maintain professional working relationships based on mutual appreciation, caring, respect and trust. Picture this: It’s January 25, 2021. At 9:15 a.m., Curtis, who is work…

Assessments: Highlights and Implementation

If you have seen the movie “Kung Fu Panda,” you probably remember the powerful and inspiring moment when Po comes to the realization that there is no secret ingredient – it’s just him. He was all but unbeatable after that. Sometimes I also think about the secret sauce Michael Jordan gave his team…

Voice of Experience

Overhead Line Work, Then and Now

Overhead line work requires much planning beforehand and total attention when it is being performed. Recently I’ve had several requests to discuss this kind of work, so I’m going to take you back to the days when I was a lineman and, later, a crew supervisor to aid in this discussion of overhead …

System Operations: Who’s in Charge?

System and utility operators are required by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(m) to have a procedure to de-energize their systems for protection of the employees working on those systems. The rules in 1910.269(m) do not specifically require a written procedure, but it is hard to imagine how an effective proc…

Sharing My Story: I’m a Male Breast Cancer Survivor

It was a beautiful October day in Captiva Island, Florida, where my family and I were on a short vacation at the end of the summer season. I was in a room of the condo we had rented. Housekeeping had recently damp-mopped the tile floor in the room, and as I walked across it, I slipped and took a …

Lone Worker Limitations

Over the years, I’ve received numerous questions about which duties lone workers can safely and legally perform, and which ones require more than one qualified worker to complete. Tasks that require at least two qualified employees are defined in OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(l)(2)(i), which states the f…

Q&A

June-July 2021 Q&A

Q: We have received some pushback from clients when setting up transmission pulling on EPZ mats that are constructed over crane mats, covered with galvanized cattle panels, overlapped, stapled down and bonded together. We follow a model passed down through our parent company’s safety research committee. Our clients have asked if the installation is certified. We did some research, found ASTM F2715 and are now wondering if that is what we should be doing. Can you help?

April-May 2021 Q&A

Q: I read the article “A Practical Review of the ANSI A92.2 Standard” in the October-November 2020 issue of Incident Prevention magazine (see https://incident-prevention.com/ip-articles/a-practical-review-of-the-ansi-a92-2-standard), and I’d like to know, is there a standard for the construction of electrically insulating bucket liners? We have problems with the geometry of a bucket. Because the walls of the bucket and the bucket liner are separated, I need to know the tolerance or maximum distance between the walls of those elements. Can you help?