SAFETY
increasingly able toprogress and grow in
their field and companies. There aremore
opportunities for continuing education,
degrees, certifications and the betterment
of skills andknowledge in safety and
riskmanagement than ever before. As
knowledge and skills increase, salaries
and career opportunities in the field
continually seem toopenup and increase
aswell.
Maywe all finishup themonthwith a
great and safe year-end and continue to
look forward to the future.
■
19
DECEMBER 2014
ACT
in attendance at the safety committee
meetingof the SpecializedCarriers&
RiggersAssociationCrane andRigging
conference I recentlyhad theprivilege
of attending. Thiswas by far thehighest
attended committeemeetingof the
conference. I know this trend is repeated
indifferent groups across the countryon
a regular basis.
I am grateful for andusually amazed at
howwilling safetyprofessionals andother
company representatives are to share best
practices across the industry and even
across lines of competition. The sharing
of lessons learnedwhen it comes to future
incident avoidance seems toknow very
few restrictions. This is a great lesson to
remember onwhat is truly important in
theday-to-day completionof our tasks.
I am grateful that as safety and risk
management principles gainmore focus
in the industry safetyprofessionals are
Daniel Erwin
discusses
what he is thankful for in
the realm of safety and
riskmanagement.
Thanks to
safety
L
ast year at this holiday time of
year, Iwas gentlypersuaded
to avoidmypotentially
preachy, possiblypessimistic, and even
sometimes overtlyopinionatedwriting
style, and express thanks for themany
things forwhich I am grateful. I think
thatwas a goodplan, andone that Iwill
repeat in this last issue of the year.
I am grateful that inmy current role as
a safety and risk consultant I get tomeet
great people across the country and
learndifferentmethods ofmanaging
safety and risk at the same time I am
there toprovide assistance.
I am grateful that loss controlmeasures
continue tobepushed to the forefront
of theway thatwedobusiness. The
concept of jobs focusingonlyon cost
and “doingwhatever it takes to get the
jobdone” are increasingly fallingby the
way side. Safety is no longer just a back
burner itemor an afterthought.
I am grateful that the fruits of the
labors I addressed above are continually
being seen inhealth and safety statistics.
If one is so inclined to study theBLS
statistics, it is nomystery that as a
general rule, injury and illness rates
continue to fall across the country in
almost everyNAICS code. Thismeans
morepeople are returninghome safely
eachday to their lovedones than ever
before.
I am grateful for great industry groups
and associations that support companies
in their health and safety initiatives,
(andother areas). This support can
come in the formof committees,
resources for reference and training,
andhelpwith regulatory agencies. An
example of this is the over 100people
‘‘
”
Safety is no longer just
a back burner item or an
afterthought.
THEAUTHOR
Daniel Erwin
is
a crane, rigging and
transportation safety
consultant and author.
