Ohio Contractors Association, Industry Members Set For Construction Safety Week

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ohio Contractors Association (OCA) is joining state, national and global construction groups in recognizing and participating in the 2020 Construction Safety Week, September 14-18, as well as making work zones and project sites across Ohio safer for workers and the traveling public.

The construction industry is one of the nation's most dangerous to work in. According to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA), the construction industry has a fatal injury rate higher than the national average for all industries. Statistics show that of every 5,000 worker fatalities, one in five occur in the construction industry.

In an effort to promote safety, the National Construction Safety Week was organized in 2014 as a five-day event urging the industry's more than 11.2 million workers to be better safety leaders through collaboration and sharing of best practices.

OCA, a statewide trades association of nearly 500 contracting and supply companies involved in Ohio's heavy, highway and utility construction industry, is using the week's national safety observance to highlight what Ohio is doing to bring awareness and to help prevent two of the industry's "focus four" worksite occurrences – electrocutions and struck-by accidents.

According to OCA Labor & Safety Affairs Director Mark Potnick, common hazards on the construction worksite are when dump trucks fail to lower their beds. "There are two hazards involved in that work," he said. "One is striking overhead electric lines, which can cause injury and death to the ground people; and the second is truck beds striking overhead structures, like bridge decks, which then causes falling chunks of concrete or objects that can strike ground employees." The most-recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show annually that electrocution and struck-by incidences in industry resulted in 6,340 work-related injuries and 438 fatalities nationally.   

To alleviate the risk of electrocution and struck-by accidents, OCA's Safety Committee set out to develop an overhead warning device that would be consistent to all industry members in the state as well as compliant with the Federal Highway Administration, Ohio Department of Transportation and OSHA.

"Since it is such a positive issue and a safety-related issue, we thought we would coordinate our distribution of the devices to our membership in an event during National Construction Safety Week," Potnick said. The OCA event, set for September 17 at its Columbus headquarters at 1313 Dublin Road, will further educate its members on electrocution and struck-by occurrences and distribute 500 overhead warning signs to heavy, highway and utility construction contractors throughout the state. The initial 500 signs are being funded through the Ohio Laborers – Employers Cooperation & Education Trust (Ohio LECET).

The 2020 National Safety Construction Week was originally set for May, but was rescheduled in order to plan and provide proper COVID-19 protocol. The focus of this year's national event will be thanking workers who support safety and recognize efforts to be injury free; increase awareness of the importance of being committed to safety every day; encourage the sharing of best practices and working to strengthen the construction industry's safety culture; and conduct onsite activities to support safety education. 

CONTACT:
Ohio Contractors Association
Mark Potnick, Director, Labor Relations & Safety Affairs
(614) 488-0726, [email protected]

SOURCE Ohio Contractors Association