Safety By Design: Safety Management System Planning
In the first two parts of this six-part series, I discussed the importance of creating and implementing a safety management system (SMS) that actively involves all employees. This part will focus on (1) identifying and prioritizing an organization’s safety needs based on specific hazards and risks and (2) developing a plan with clear objectives and […]
OSHA-Compliant Employee Training
“Yes, we are OSHA compliant. Our apprentice lineworkers are trained and certified by a local line school, which guarantees that the training they deliver meets OSHA standards. Every six months, we send the apprentices to the school for two weeks of hands-on training. They also take online classes in between the hands-on sessions; the online […]
Bucket Truck Safety: OSHA Standards and Other Considerations
I receive numerous and varied questions about the safe use of bucket trucks in electric utility operations, so in this installment of “Voice of Experience,” I am going to share with you the OSHA standards you need to know as well as some things I have discovered during observations and audits of field crews. First, […]
June-July 2025 Q&A
Q: Can you direct us to information regarding “fuzzing” or “noisy tester” voltage detectors? We’ve heard that with noisy testers, there’s potential for both false negatives (no voltage is detected although it’s present) and false positives (voltage is indicated where none exists). We’ve also heard a noisy tester can be triggered by induction on a […]
Prioritize Safety Now So It Becomes a Value Before It’s Too Late
We typically excel at safety – after an incident. My question is, can we get it right before an incident occurs? And if so, how? Keeping in mind that you probably learned a stove could be hot by touching one as a child, let’s consider another question: Is it possible for us to develop safety-related […]