Union Pacific Railroad On Way to Best Safety Year
OMAHA, NE -- Union Pacific Railroad employees achieved the best
first half of the year for safety performance in company
history. From Jan. 1 through June 30, Union Pacific’s employee
reportable injury rate was 1.31, a nearly 10 percent improvement
over the previous company best 1.45 reportable rate for the
first six months of 2009.
Union Pacific’s employee injury rate improved 50 percent from
2001 to 2009.
A company’s reportable injury rate is calculated using the
number of lost workday injuries per 200,000 worker hours, or per
100 employees working in a full year.
“Our approach is that all injuries can be prevented,” said Bob
Grimaila, Union Pacific vice president - Safety, Security and
Environment. “Great teamwork combined with employees embracing
best practices and looking out for one another is critical to
each person’s individual safety.”
Many factors account for Union Pacific’s safety performance,
including:
·
Implementing job safety analyses, where each task is broken down
into its component parts to identify the best way to perform
each job. This leads to standardized work processes that are
incorporated into training and coaching.
·
Evaluating new ideas that challenge the status quo to improve
work rules.
·
Committing to the company’s Total Safety Culture, an
employee-owned process that empowers employees. The voluntary
process focuses on training, observations and feedback.
·
Developing proactive safety improvement efforts that evaluate
close calls to better predict the potential for accidents.
·
Establishing risk mitigation and assessment processes.
·
Communicating with fellow employees about safety best practices
as well as at-risk behaviors.
·
Dedicating $40 million in 2009 to enhance workplace training.
“We believe a zero accident rate is achievable because in every
accident there is an opportunity to prevent it,” Grimaila said.
““We want everyone to go home from work in as good or better
condition than when they arrived.”
