THE WINNERS

Recipients of the inaugural Saxcies™ all attended a special reception held on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seattle, Washington. Saxcies™ were awarded to:

WINNER OF SAFETY PROGRAM OF THE YEAR:
NorthStar Communications Group

Criteria: The Safety Program of the Year is awarded to a company for excellence in its health and safety efforts.

The Winner: NorthStar Communications Group, Inc.

Profile: SafetyXChange isn’t the first organization to recognize NorthStar for safety excellence. In the past four years, NorthStar has received five other safety awards. It’s easy to understand why. A lost workday rate of 0.0 for 2005, and recordable incident rates of less than l.0 for 2004-05 are one indication of success.
But, as safety professionals know, it’s not just about numbers. Safety excellence is about organizational commitment, hard work and follow-up. NorthStar exhibits these qualities in spades. Some highlights of its safety program:

• Full blown training and safety screening not just of employees but of contractors and subcontractors;
• Complete reporting and monthly analysis of incidents -- including near misses;
• Pre-employment, random, post-accident and reasonable cause testing for alcohol and controlled substances;
• Active involvement by management including the conducting of routine site visits; and
• A VPP-style collaboration between and among workers, middle managers and corporate management to ensure health and safety.

In short, NorthStar, like the astral body after which it’s named, truly represents a star and guiding light in the field of health and safety.

WINNER OF SAFETY HERO OF THE YEAR: Jeffrey D. Ambrose

Criteria: The Safety Hero of the Year is awarded to a safety professional who demonstrates an extraordinary personal commitment to safety both inside and outside the workplace.

The Winner: Jeffrey D. Ambrose, ASP, CHST, CET of Clark Construction Group, LLC

Profile: The person who nominated Jeffrey Ambrose for Safety Hero of the Year wrote a stirring essay about Mr. Ambrose’s many qualities: “I don’t have to travel far in any direction in the safety community,” wrote the nominator, “to find many others who would agree with me on Jeff’s outstanding abilities and contributions to the profession.” The person who wrote this knew whereof she spoke. You see, she’s Mr. Ambrose’s wife!
When we envisioned a Safety Hero, we were thinking of somebody who lived and breathed safety, someone who never set it aside for a moment, someone whose safety identity you couldn’t separate from their personal identity. We were thinking of someone just like Jeffrey Ambrose. Here are just a few of Jeff’s routines:

• Travels daily 75+ miles in the nation’s second worst traffic congestion to his job as Area Safety Manager with Clark Construction Group in Washington, DC
• After a 12-hour day, he returns home and barely finishes dinner before heading to the computer to put in more hours
• Spends Saturdays in the basement, sawing and hammering away on material for an upcoming fall protection training program
• Mentors new safety managers
• Has 30+ years as a volunteer firefighter, including fire line officer and training officer, often answering emergency calls in the middle of the night
• Member of Harford County Hazardous Materials Response Team
• Donates blood
• Participates in industry groups and meetings
• Teaches at the local community college

Perhaps the most impressive display of safety heroism is Jeffrey’s assimilation of his family into the field of safety. Not only has he helped mentor his wife through her career development as a safety professional, he has also mentored their son into the volunteer fire service. Congratulations, Jeffrey. You’re an inspiring example for your family and your industry!

WINNER OF BEST NEW SAFETY PRODUCT:

First Voice™ Self-contained Emergency Treatment (SET) System
From: Think Safe

Criteria: The Best New Safety Product is awarded to an innovative product or service that enhances health and safety in and out of the workplace, as voted by the members of SafetyXChange.  

The Winner: First Voice™ Self-Contained Emergency Treatment (SET) System

Profile: Best New Safety Product is different from the other Saxcies™. For one thing, it’s the only Saxcie™ decided by member vote. There are also 10 finalists. It was a close vote. But in the end, the winner was a unique new first aid device known as First Voice.

It was a great choice. First Voice started with an observation. Annette Carter was a flight nurse who responded to medical emergencies. When she’d touch down at the scene of an emergency, she’d find more often than not that the victim had received no, inadequate or even harmful treatment. The problem: People on the scene lacked the information and supplies necessary to stabilize the victim until help could arrive. Sadly, therefore, opportunities to save the victim’s life or prevent serious injury were lost. Nurse Carter saw how the AED had saved victims of cardiac arrest. A light bulb went off. “Let’s use the same concept and technology to save victims of other kinds of medical emergency,” she resolved.

The result is First Voice. First Voice provides a series of interactive Yes/No verbal prompts for more than 30 medical emergencies including burns, broken bones, HAZMAT incidents, severe bleeding and CPR. Like an AED, it empowers a person on the scene to provide lifesaving first aid, even if that person has absolutely no training. It even comes with pre-packaged supplies.

First Voice looks like a child’s toy -- a blue box with colorful buttons. But it this simplicity that forms the essence of First Voice and gives it the power to make it possible for others to save lives.

So, to the creators of First Voice, SafetyXChange says congratulations and thanks for blessing us with your product.

WINNER OF SAFETY TRAINER OF THE YEAR: Steven L. Pollock

Criteria: The Safety Trainer of the Year Saxcie™ is awarded to a safety professional who exhibits individual success and leadership in the field of safety training.

The Winner: Steven L. Pollock of Stacy & Witbeck, Inc. (working with Herzog Contracting on joint venture project: Salt Lake City Commuter Rail Constructors).

Profile: Safety Trainers face a tough challenge. Not only must they convince management of the value of their training programs, but also persuade the trainees that what they have to say is worth listening to. To accomplish this, Safety Trainers must think creatively, speak clearly, understand complex and abstract material, translate that material into plain language, have a good sense of humor and, above all, be trustworthy. An effective trainer, in other words, must be like Steve Pollock.

After leaving high school, Steve took a job as a clerk with a railroad in South Bend, Indiana. He became involved in Operation Lifesaver, a nation-wide organization dedicated to educating the public about railroad safety. He then rolled his railroad experience and his passion for safety into a career in the construction industry, teaching roadway safety to California construction workers. His training techniques caught the eye of some important people. Steve didn't need to persuade management of the value of his training. They came to him. Soon the railroads were insisting that project workers go through Steve's training.

Steve has since tailored his training program to numerous railroads, uniting rules from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) with each railroad's own set of rules. He uses flip charts, DVDs, overhead projectors and movies that demonstrate the speed and destructive nature of passenger trains. On completion of training, workers receive a special sticker for their helmet. No sticker on your helmet = No access to the work site. Those who don't pass the course receive one-on-one training with Steve until they do. In the past 14 months, Steve's issued more than 2,000 stickers.

Every morning, Steve meets with the railroad personnel for special instructions and to establish the type of protection needed for the day. He then goes to the office, to a special map he's made of his current 44-mile long project. The map is on a 4'x 8' white board, adorned with 5 colors of striping tape and dozens of small magnetic writing boards. On those small magnetic boards, Steve writes daily safety information required by the FRA and places them on the appropriate spot on the map. It's an essential information tool that many workers rely on every day.

But it's not just Steve's ingenuity or thoroughness that mark him as a great trainer. According to the nominator's essay, Steve "uses his experience, personal connections, understanding of railroad culture and often a hearty laugh to make this a safer, more enjoyable job for all who work here."
It's a trust thing. Companies trust Steve's programs and employees trust Steve. And it's his success in this tough balance that makes Steven Pollock Safety Trainer of the Year.

WINNER OF THE HENSHAW AWARD FOR CORPORATE LEADERSHIP IN SAFETY: Delta Air Lines

They love to fly safely and it shows—Delta Air Lines Corporate EHS Director James E. Swartz receives the first ever Henshaw Award from SafetyXChange editors Glenn Demby (left) and Catherine Jones (right)

Criteria: Former OSHA Secretary John Henshaw is a visionary. To Henshaw, safety success is not measured simply by lost time injury rates and other statistics; it’s measured by an intangible quality best described as commitment. Corporations, Henshaw believes, must embrace health and safety as part of the essential business mission and engage others to do the same.

SafetyXChange created a special Saxcie -- the Henshaw Award -- to recognize a company that best embodies this commitment. It’s a special award -- the only one that comes with a golden helmet.

Process: 22 companies from the US and Canada were nominated for the Henshaw Award. All of them had distinguished safety programs and records. Selecting five finalists was very hard. In addition to lending his name to the award, Secretary Henshaw served as presiding judge over the panel that selected the winner.

The Winner: Delta Air Lines.

Profile: It’s fitting that an airline should receive the first Henshaw Award. After all, it’s hard to imagine an industry where health and safety is more of a challenge than in the airline industry. For Delta, the chore is to protect not only 54,000 employees in 148 locations worldwide, but 200,000 passengers per day!

In these days of rising fuel prices and ever growing demands for increased productivity, it would be easy to relegate safety to a secondary priority. But Delta will have none of that. On the contrary, Delta has established itself as an airline health and safety leader. It’s no wonder that last year Occupational Hazards magazine named Delta one of the “12 Safest Companies in America,” the only airline ever to make this list.

Some of the things that make Delta a leader:

• Four of its sites have earned OSHA VPP Start status; five more are applying for VPP recognition;
• The job description for every Delta employee—from baggage handler to CEO—incorporates safety; and
• At Delta, health and safety are considered in all leadership performance reviews.

Although impressive, these “resume stuffers” don’t do justice to Delta’s passion for safety. I know because I experienced that passion when I handed the Henshaw Award trophy to Mr. Swartz. I looked into his eyes and saw determination. I heard his voice tremble with pride when he delivered his acceptance speech.

And it was no act. When the ceremony was over, Mr. Swartz took me aside and made it clear that Delta didn’t want to be merely a recipient of the Henshaw Award. Delta wanted to use its recognition to set an example and preach the message of safety to other companies.

In that moment, Mr. Swartz demonstrated the very quality of corporate leadership in safety that Secretary Henshaw and SafetyXChange set out to recognize when we created the Henshaw Award.

Congratulations, Delta!