Tag: #awareness

Stay Out – Stay Alive

Posted on by McCraren Compliance
First published by MSHA
MSHA Stay Out Stay Alive Logo for 2021

Photo property of MSHA.gov

Stay Out, Stay Alive 

Exploring or playing at active and abandoned mine sites is dangerous, potentially fatal 

Water-filled quarries and pits hide rock ledges, old machinery and other hazards.  The water can be deceptively deep and dangerously cold.  Steep, slippery walls make exiting the water difficult.  Hills of loose material can easily collapse on an unsuspecting biker or climber.  Vertical shafts can be hundreds of feet deep and may be completely unprotected, or hidden by vegetation.

Even so dozens of people are injured or killed while exploring or playing on mine property every year.  The men and women employed in our nation’s mines are trained to work in a safe manner.  For trespassers, hazards are not always apparent.

For example:

  • Water-filled quarries can not only hide rock ledges but can also contain dangerous electric currents that become deadly under water.
  • Abandoned mine shafts that may seem fun to explore can unexpectedly collapse.

As students return to school while the weather is still warm and water seems inviting, it is more important than ever to remind people to stay out of abandoned or active mine sites like quarries and pits – and stay alive.

Visit https://www.abandonedmines.gov/staying-safe to learn more about abandoned mine and quarry accidents. Please help us raise awareness about this summertime danger. Most importantly, remind people to Stay Out, Stay Alive!

McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.

It’s Operation Safe Driver Week

Posted on by McCraren Compliance

First published by CVSA

Photo property of CVSA

Greenbelt, Maryland (July 11, 2021) – Today is the start of Operation Safe Driver Week, a safe-driving awareness, outreach and enforcement campaign aimed at reducing crashes through interventions between law enforcement officials and unsafe drivers.

Throughout the week, law enforcement officers will be on the lookout for passenger vehicle drivers and commercial motor vehicle drivers engaging in dangerous driving behaviors, such as speeding and distracted driving. Identified unsafe drivers will be issued a warning or citation.

Roadway fatalities increased 24% in 2020 over the previous 12-month period, despite miles driven decreasing 13% due to the pandemic. Furthermore, studies have shown that most crashes are caused by drivers’ actions – either something they did, such as speeding, or didn’t do, such as not paying attention to the driving task. Research has also shown that interactions with law enforcement change drivers’ behaviors.

“We know that roadway fatalities and crashes have increased, we know that drivers’ actions are often the cause of crashes, and we know that after a person is pulled over and warned or cited by a member of law enforcement, that person’s driving actions improve,” said CVSA President Sgt. John Samis with the Delaware State Police. “We took what we know about causes of crashes and interventions to reduce the number of crashes, and made that into an actionable and measurable traffic enforcement safety initiative – Operation Safe Driver Week.”

Operation Safe Driver Week is the law enforcement community’s effort to reduce the number of crashes involving passenger vehicles and commercial motor vehicles by intervening in unsafe driving behaviors when they happen and warning or citing unsafe drivers in an effort to improve drivers’ behaviors.

During Operation Safe Driver Week, enforcement officers will be tracking their interactions with passenger vehicle drivers and commercial motor vehicle drivers and will submit a report to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) at the conclusion of the week. CVSA will publicly report its findings in the fall.

CVSA’s Operation Safe Driver program was created to improve the behavior of all drivers operating in an unsafe manner – either in or around commercial motor vehicles – through educational and traffic enforcement strategies.

Operation Safe Driver Week is sponsored by CVSA, in partnership with the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, Mexico’s Ministry of Communications and Transportation and its National Guard, and with support from the motor carrier industry and transportation safety organizations.

To find out about Operation Safe Driver Week enforcement events in your area, contact the agency or department responsible for overseeing commercial motor vehicle safety in your area.

McCraren Compliance can help you understand and comply with FMCSA, DOT and ADOT and ensure your drivers and your vehicles operate safely and efficiently.

Call us Today at 888-758-4757 or email us at info@mccrarencompliance.com to schedule your free FMCSA Compliance Assessment.

Sleep deprivation among U.S. workers a growing problem, study finds

Posted on by Sarah

More than 1 out of 3 U.S. working adults aren’t getting enough sleep, and the prevalence of sleep deprivation has increased significantly since 2010, according to researchers from Ball State University.

The researchers analyzed 2010-2018 data from more than 150,000 working adults who participated in the National Health Interview Survey to determine the frequency of short sleep duration. Of the respondents, 35.6% reported getting less than seven hours of sleep a night in 2018. That’s up from 30.9% in 2010.

“Inadequate sleep is associated with mild to severe physical and mental health problems, injury, loss of productivity, and premature mortality,” Jagdish Khubchandani, lead study author and a health science professor at BSU, said in a press release. “This is a significant finding because the U.S. is currently witnessing high rates of chronic diseases across all ages, and many of these diseases are related to sleep problems.”

Other findings:

  • Professions with the highest prevalence of sleep deprivation in 2018 were police and military (50%), health care support (45%), transport and material moving (41%), and production occupations (41%).
  • Among women, 38.8% reported less than seven hours of sleep a night, up from 31.2% in 2010. Among men, those percentages were 35.5 and 30.5, respectively.
  • Among racial groups, sleep deficiency prevalence rose among African Americans (40.6% to 46.5%), Asian Americans (29.5% to 35.3%) and whites (29.2% to 34.1%).

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults sleep seven to nine hours a night.

“Employers have a major responsibility and should use health promotion strategies to ensure that workers who struggle with sleep problems are assisted,” Khubchandani said. “We all suffer when our bus and truck drivers, doctors, and nurses are sleep deprived. There is a need for increasing awareness and improving the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, and there needs to be emphasis on public education, training for health professionals and monitoring.”

U.S. Department of Labor Provides Compliance Assistance Resources to Keep Workers Safe from Trenching-Related Hazards

Posted on by McCraren Compliance
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA has developed a series of compliance assistance resources to help keep workers safe from trenching and excavation hazards. OSHA’s goal is to increase awareness of trenching hazards in construction, educate job creators and workers on safe cave-in prevention solutions, and decrease the number of trench collapses. These resources, which continue the goals of the Department’s recently announced Office of Compliance Initiatives (OCI), encourage and facilitate compliance evaluations. Read more»

Southwest Safety Congress is BACK and Registration is OPEN!

Posted on by McCraren Compliance
Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Location: Black Canyon Conference Center, Phoenix

Breakfast, lunch, and WiFi are included for all attendees and exhibitors!

Space is limited so hurry to register/vendor/sponsor!
Who should attend?                           
  • Business Owners                         
  • Management                                  
  • Safety Personnel
  • HR Managers
  • First Line Supervisors
  • Employees
   This Year’s Session Topics Include:
  • Opioid Crisis
  • CPR/AED (4 Hour)
  • Fall Protection
  • Fall Protection – Rescue
  • OSHA Silica Update
  • Workplace Violence
  • And More!