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COUNTY COMMENT %u2022 March 2025 11continuedROADWORTHY NEWS: WHAT IS YOUR COUNTY%u2019S SAFETY CULTURE?By Darryl Lutz, KAC Local Road EngineerWhat does %u201csafety%u201d mean to you? As a road person, we might think of safety as measures we take to prevent traffic accidents or to reduce the severity of traffic accidents when they do occur. It might even include public service announcements to warn against distracted driving, or to drive with your seatbelt on or to not drink and drive. That is all true, but, as the road department or for that matter any county department, hopefully we think of safety as measures we take to prevent accidents or to reduce the risk of accidents for our employees while they perform their on-the-job tasks. The county I retired from has a strong safety culture in place that has helped bring it a long way to reducing the number of accidents, reducing the severity of accidents, and greatly improving our experience modification factor for workers%u2019 compensation insurance. However, it was not always that way. Early in my former career, it seemed like we were having too many on-the-job accidents. And, even worse, we would often see some of the same types of accidents repeatedly from across multiple departments. For me, the thought of an employee being injured or even something worse always weighed heavy on my mind. We needed to do something before the %u201csomething worse%u201d happened, and the county did!The turning point occurred nearly 15 years ago following an incident involving a raised truck bed hitting an overhead power line. It was not the first time this had happened, but this time someone got hurt. The accident resulted in the electrocution of an employee operating a shoulder machine that was pushing the truck down the road. The employee miraculously survived and returned to work. This was serious enough, though, that we got county administration involved along with our insurance company. We had to change the way we do business, especially as it is related to employee safety.The county had a basic safety program in place but lacked active engagement. Our tendency toward safety seemed to be more %u201creactive%u201d rather than %u201cproactive.%u201d We understood the need for a strong comprehensive safety program, but the passion and priority were not shared by all, and it was a task that could be overwhelming for one department to take on. Building a strong and comprehensive safety program would take considerable staff time and outside technical resources to do it right. It would take a change in county policies to help make any program effective. The county made that commitment and has since built a robust safety program, and more importantly, built a %u201cculture of safety.%u201dThe county recognized that it had a lot of workers%u2019 comp claims and too many lost-time claims. It was not just the public works department as there were major claims across multiple county departments. Besides the lost time for employees and recovery from injuries, the county%u2019s worker%u2019s comp insurance experience modification factor was very high which meant the county was paying much higher insurance premiums than we needed to.