Director of Environmental, Health and Safety Jerrod Garret and Vice President Fred Thompson
Every serious injury or fatality starts somewhere. More often than not, the warning signs are there – and someone sees them.
Each year, Construction Safety Week is an opportunity to reflect and recommit to our safety efforts. This year’s theme – “All in Together. Recognize, Respond, Respect” – draws attention to high-hazard work and preventing serious incidents, which resonates with what we’re focusing on as a company.
At LeChase, Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) and Potential Serious Injuries and Fatalities (PSIFs) prevention is not a trend or a talking point. It’s a responsibility we carry every day. The conditions our teams face – falls, struck-by hazards, stored energy, caught-in situations – are real, and the margin for error is small.
One of the most powerful tools we have is also one of the simplest: safety observations.
When someone takes a moment to stop, look and document a hazard before it leads to an incident, that is SIF prevention in action. That is “Recognize, Respond, Respect,” not as a slogan, but as a behavior.
We have seen this play out on our jobsites in many different ways. A worker flags improper fall protection before a crew returns to the scaffold. A superintendent documents a near miss and shares it at the next morning’s safety huddle. These actions may seem small, but their impact is significant.
Being “All in Together means safety doesn’t begin and end with our safety team. It requires every superintendent, every project manager, every trade partner and every worker to own it. Submit the observation. Respond to it. Learn from it. Share it.
During Construction Safety Week, and every week, our goal remains the same: ensure everyone goes home the same way they came to work. That does not happen by accident. That outcome is made possible when everyone takes ownership of safety, one decision, one observation and one action at a time.
