Texas Mutual Launches Safety Program for Teenage Workers in Lubbock Area

LUBBOCK, Texas, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- With the goal of reducing the number of workplace injuries among teen workers, Texas Mutual Insurance Company and its partners on April 23 kicked off the One Wrong Move campaign in Lubbock.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090423/DA03505)

Through brochures, billboards, radio commercials, mall advertising and the OneWrongMove.org Web site, the campaign will inform teens, parents and employers in the Lubbock area about workplace hazards and how to prevent them. The message of the campaign is "Workplace Accidents Are a Pain. Work Smart."

"With this campaign, Texas Mutual and its partners aim to educate people in the Lubbock area about how to avoid workplace accidents among 16- to 19-year-olds," Russell R. Oliver, president of Texas Mutual, said. "One wrong move in the workplace--a restaurant or a retail store, for instance--certainly can result in life-changing injuries for a teen worker."

The One Wrong Move campaign is being tested in the Lubbock area. Representatives of Texas Mutual, the Lubbock City Council, the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and the Lubbock Independent School District launched the campaign at the Brady's Dairy Queen at 7813 Slide Road. Brady's Dairy Queen is a Texas Mutual policyholder.

Aside from Brady's Dairy Queen and the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, employers participating in the One Wrong Move campaign include Caprock Business Forms; Chicken Express; Children's Home of Lubbock; Crenshaw, Dupree & Milam, LLP; Fastbreak/Balco Electric; Greer Electric; Lubbock YWCA; Schlotzsky's; South Plains Mall; and South Plains Service Electric.

Insurance agents participating in the One Wrong Move campaign include Glen Morton Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, Jake Montoya Insurance; Sanford & Tatum Insurance, TCSC Insurance Agency and Wayne Lawley Insurance Agency.

A cornerstone of the One Wrong Move campaign is an online workplace safety quiz. Teens in the Lubbock area are invited to visit the campaign's Web site, OneWrongMove.org, to take the quiz; after successfully completing the quiz, each participant will receive a free ticket to a movie at Cinemark Theatres.

Data from Texas Mutual policyholders shows the most common injuries among employees under age 21 are strains and injuries from lifting, and cuts, punctures and scrapes. Among those policyholders, businesses in the leisure and hospitality industry account for the bulk of work-related injuries among employees 16 to 19.

About 80 percent of U.S. teens work during their high school years, many of them during the summer, according to the American Society of Safety Engineers. In 2007, the United States had about 6 million workers ages 16 to 19, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nationally, about 230,000 teens suffer work-related injuries each year, with 77,000 of them requiring treatment at emergency rooms, according to the American Society of Safety Engineers.

The National Pediatric Trauma Registry and the National Center for Health Statistics report that occupational injuries are the fourth-leading cause of death among Americans age 10 to 19. In Texas, there were 14 workplace deaths among 18- and 19-year-olds in 2007 but no workplace deaths among 16- and 17-year-olds, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Young workers are exposed to many of the same on-the-job risks as their adult counterparts, but are more likely to be injured at work than grown-ups, the American Society of Safety Engineers says. A nationwide survey released in 2007 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates about one-third of teen workers have not undergone workplace safety training.

A study financed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that the most common jobs for teens are in restaurants, babysitting, lawn care, family-owned businesses, family-run farms, grocery stores and department stores.

About One Wrong Move

The One Wrong Move campaign, sponsored by Texas Mutual Insurance Company, promotes safety among workers age 16 to 19. The campaign's pilot project, being conducted in the Lubbock area, aims to reduce workplace injuries among young workers during the summer of 2009 by educating teenagers, parents and employers about on-the-job hazards.

For more information, visit www.onewrongmove.org.

About Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Austin-based Texas Mutual Insurance Company is the state's leading provider of workers' compensation insurance, with approximately 25 percent of the market. Since 1991, the company has provided a stable, competitively priced source of workers' comp insurance for all Texas employers. Preventing workplace accidents and minimizing their consequences is a major part of Texas Mutual's mission.

For more information, visit www.texasmutual.com.

    Media Contact:
    John Egan
    jegan@echristianpr.com
    Elizabeth Christian & Associates Public Relations
    (512) 472-9599 (office)
    (512) 799-1022 (cell)

SOURCE Texas Mutual Insurance Company

RELATED LINKS
http://www.texasmutual.com
http://www.onewrongmove.org