West Penn Power Employees Worked More than One Year Without a Serious Injury
Safety Milestone Longest in Company's History
GREENSBURG, Pa., Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- West Penn Power linemen and other operations services employees worked for more than one year without incurring an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-recordable injury, the longest stretch in the utility's 99-year history. An OSHA-recordable injury is one that requires medical treatment beyond basic first aid.
Overall, 375 line operations employees based at 16 service centers throughout the West Penn Power service area worked October 14, 2014 through November 2015 without a recordable injury, which represents a combined total of more than 800,000 hours of safe operations.
"During the past year, we achieved one of our top priorities as a company and that is to ensure our linemen and other operations personnel return home safely at the end of each day," said David W. McDonald, regional president of West Penn Power. "This doesn't happen by chance. It represents an ongoing commitment by our employees and leadership to work together to ensure the high-risk jobs we do on a daily basis are done safely."
During the period when the safety milestone was achieved, West Penn Power personnel restored power to more than 830,000 customers and connected service to 5,700 new customers.
To mark the safety milestone, McDonald and his management team held regional safety celebration events at West Penn Power line shops in Arnold (near New Kensington), Boyce (southern Allegheny County), Butler, Charleroi, Clarion, Jeanette, Jefferson (northern Greene County), Kittanning, Latrobe, McConnellsburg, Pleasant Valley (near Connellsville), St. Marys, State College, Uniontown, Washington, and Waynesboro.
West Penn Power, a FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiary, serves about 720,000 customers in 24 Pennsylvania counties. Follow West Penn Power on Twitter @W_Penn_Power and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WestPennPower.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate more than 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, while its generation subsidiaries control nearly 17,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro and other renewables. Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp or online at www.firstenergycorp.com.
Editor's Note: Photos of West Penn Power employees celebrating more than a year without an OSHA-recordable injury are available for download on Flickr.
SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.
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