Monday, May 6, 2019

OSHA National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down Week! (5/6/19 - 5/10/19)

Good morning to all IDI employees,

Today is the start of OSHA's National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down Week.  This is OSHA's 6th year of holding the Stand-Down and IDI has participated in this since it's inception.  OSHA's goal of the Stand-Down is to raise fall hazard awareness and prevent fall fatalities and injuries.  Falls are a leading cause of death for employees, accounting for 364 of the 971 construction fatalities in the USA in 2017 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  IDI will be participating in the fall prevention stand-down again this year.  The founder of IDI, Tony Pintozzi Sr., opened the doors of the company in 1952 and ever since IDI was established, we have never had a fall related fatality.  In fact, IDI has never had a work related fatality and is something that Tony and the current leaders of the company, Butch Pintozzi, Bill Preston, Jim Gaszynski, Don Perrin and Matt Kiefer are very proud of!

The following is how IDI will be participating in the Stand-Down.  On Monday, 5/6/19, we need for our lead field supervisors & Safety Advocates to gather your crews together during your toolbox talk session and we want everyone performing the same toolbox talk from your manual.  The toolbox talk to perform is from the Fall Protection tab of your manual, topic # FP8 and the name of the topic is: What is Fall Protection?  During this session, advise our employees that the purpose of this toolbox talk session is for our participation is OSHA's National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down.  We are taking a time out for safety and recognizing that falls from elevations are a serious matter.  During this session, we are looking for all employees to participate.  Ask employees if they have ever witnessed a fall at a construction site, what that was like and what affect it had on them.  Ask if they know of anyone who has sustained a fatal fall and again, discuss the affects it had on them, the affects it had on the victim's loved ones.  All employees should be sharing fall protection stories, safety tips and fall prevention related thoughts.  Also, many of the general contractors at the projects we are working at next week will be holding Fall Prevention Stand-Downs and we need for our employees to participate in those.

Falls from elevations are a serious matter and we need to take them seriously.  This Fall Prevention Stand-Down fits right in with our safety culture and our safety mission statement:  "Everyone Goes Home Alive And In The Same Condition As They Arrived; Your Loved Ones Count On It!  

We want to participate in this Stand-Down because we care about you!  You are part of the IDI family and family looks out for each other.

If you have any questions about this Stand-Down, please contact our Safety Director, Safety Pete at (847) 417-1689.

Have a Safe Day!