Safety Week 2018: Why Gray Focuses on Construction Safety
“With the daily dangers we face in this industry, there is no room for complacency and no room for false confidence,” says Brian Jones, COO, Gray Construction.
At Gray, we put safety and quality of life first. It’s our first core value, but it’s also a natural part of our culture both on our jobsites and in our offices.
Gray is thrilled to participate in another year of Safety Week to join the industry-wide efforts and “raise awareness of the construction industry’s continuing commitment to eliminating worker injury and to clearly communicate dedication to a shared culture of care and concern and the belief that every week must be Safety Week.”
All our team members and subcontractors participate in our coordinated Safety Week events. Each year, we begin each day of Safety Week with a stand-down, a voluntary event for employers to talk directly to construction teams about safety. Following this morning safety stand-down, the construction team comes together for a specific, educational focus on safety issues.
Gray’s Safety Week agenda for this year is as follows:
Monday – Job-wide Clean Up!
This Safety Week, we’re beginning with a focus on a clean jobsite. A clean site is important, because slips and trips continue to be a leading cause or worker injuries in construction. In addition, these types of injuries are typically soft tissue incidents such as knees, backs and ankles, which can cause employees to be out of work for significant periods of time. Simple tasks such as weeping, throwing away trash and stacking materials go a long way in ensuring quality on a jobsite. A clean jobsite is simply a natural step toward smart construction.
Tuesday – Fall Protection
Out of 4,693 worker fatalities in private industry according to the most recent available data, the leading causes of private sector worker deaths (excluding highway collisions) in the construction industry were falls. As a result, it is of the highest importance to focus on fall protection. Instilling the significance of effectively tying off into everyone’s minds could truly save lives.
Wednesday – Hand and Body Placement
According to OSHA, crushing and pinching hand injuries continue to be a large portion of first aid and recordable cases. In addition to proper glove use, it is very important that we talk about proper hand placement and using tag-lines or push-sticks when feasible. As a company, Gray was able to reduce recordable hand lacerations by 50 percent with the implementation of cut-resistant gloves. Still, smashed/pinched fingers and hands accounts for a majority of industry injuries.
Thursday & Friday – Dealer’s Choice!
Every jobsite is different. Therefore, it’s important to recognize and educate on safety-related topics specific to each jobsite in order to improve the level of safety on that site. Some of the topics our teams want to include are:
- Safe Ladder Use
- Good Electrical Practices
- Proper Scaffold Use
- The Importance of Spotters and Barricades
- Safe Equipment Operation
With safety as our cornerstone, we accept any opportunity to shed light on the importance of safety, both on and off the jobsite. Although Safety Week is only one week each year, it’s an excellent opportunity to educate our both team members and subcontractors why safety is our No. 1 core value.
It is truly a focus every single day of the year.
The week allows an additional opportunity for the entire industry to come together as one cohesive team and truly emphasize the importance of safety.
The ongoing commitment of safety is one that we will continue to advance because you can never be “too good” at safety.
“I focus on safety, not because it’s my job, not for personal accolades, but because looking out for each other is the right thing to do,” says Bill Carey, Director of Safety, Gray Construction.
For more information on Safety Week, visit https://www.constructionsafetyweek.com/.
To learn more about Gray’s dedication to safety and to explore the Gray Safety 6, visit our safety page.