Page 5 - December 2021 Track N Times

SAFETY FOCUS

Lessons Learned: My View From the Front Row

By Christopher Locke, Manager Field Safety

As I prepare to change roles within the Loram organization, I have taken time to reflect on my time working in
the safety department over the last 5 ½ years. We all face day-to-day challenges in the execution of our roles as
individual employees and are often so caught up in those challenges there is no time for reflection.
During my first 90 days as a Field Safety Specialist, the things I encountered were a very sobering experience. I felt
more like an Incident Response Specialist flying from one incident to another. The Recordable Injury Rate was
around 5. We were averaging 12 Out of Limits or Track Authority Violations per year. What little time there was
between incidents to visit machines highlighted why we were having so many injuries and incidents. During those
visits, I would find employees working under grind buggies with no LOTO at all applied. Know Before You Go
was not being used and the list goes on. Using the Types of Safety Cultures index we seemed to be firmly in the
Reactive space.

There were various Calculative “Safety Systems” in place at various states of machine-level understanding, applica-
tion, and compliance.

At various levels, there were Proactive activities taking place.

As the Calculative systems improved combined with the Proactive Leadership at all levels improved there has been
a movement underway towards a Generative Culture.

Continued Page 5

Page 3 DECEMBER