WM Utility can do better with a little training

Our View

WM Utility can do better with a little training

Workplace safety is, and should be, a top priority for any business, public or private, and after hearing results of a recent safety report from the West Memphis Utilities it appears there just might be a need to demonstrate the proper way to sit in an office chair without causing an injury.

Oh, by the way, their might also be a need to require utility employees working in the field to wear steel-toed shoes after hearing of a man hole cover falling on the foot of worker. With no current safety shoes currently required, the blow left the worker hobbled and he should be lucky the injuries weren’t more severe.

We guess the injury that was among the strangest was that of an officer worker who fell reaching from an office chair and tweaked a knee.

Listen, there isn’t any humor in any injury but come on folks, slipping from an office chair?

For at least this one utility worker, there clearly is a need to know how to operate an office chair without slipping and causing an injury. Just a thought.

Utility management and members of the city’s utility commission were told recently about a new emphasis on employee safety and of the safety incidents during the first quarter of the year from senior lineman and safety coordinator Brett Sims.

As we reported, the city utilities’ 40 employees racked up three vehicle accidents and four recordable injuries during this period. The single lost time injury resulted in two days of lost productivity. Two injuries resulted in 18 days total of restricted duty.

As utility Commissioner Dana Parker pointed out, no injury is acceptable regardless of the severity.

And that includes falling out of an office chair.

There was also the case where one blow to the face to one employee resulting from the flailing arms of another worker slipping resulted in another injury.

Besides these unexpected freak accidents there was one vehicle accident reported each of the first three months of the year as well, according to Sims.

There was the suggestion that a comparison be done as to the number of accidents and incidents other utilities encounter. The safety records of other utilities should have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what happens in West Memphis.

This is a situation where West Memphis should have in place safety training in all areas of city government, particularly departments that have employees working in hazardous and potentially dangerous situations.

It would certainly be interesting to know the number of accidents involving treatment in other areas of city government, such as the sanitation, public works, parks and recreation, police and fire departments.

Failure to have in place approved OSHA Safety Training could lead to stiff governmental penalties as well as civil litigation. What we have learned is a wake-up call for all management in city government.