Arlington, VA - July 31, 2006 The National Utility Contractors Association has announced that Western Summit Constructors, Inc. of Denver, Colorado has won the association’s prestigious William H. Feather Safety Award. Created in 1978 to honor the contributions of the founding chairman of NUCA’s Safety Committee, the award recognizes NUCA member companies who put safety first. The winners are chosen on the basis of injury frequency data, a safety statement and company program information in seven categories established according to total man hours worked.
Western Summit was selected the 2005 Overall Winner for a safety program that yielded only 10 non- disabling accidents in the 1,815,130 man hours worked from January 1 to December 31, 2005. Its incident rate for 2005 was zero. The 25-year-old company has a Corporate Safety Committee, a full- time safety director and a written safety program that has been in place for 14 years. Of its 300 foremen, supervisors and managers, 180 have attended OSHA’s construction outreach program. Seventy-five employees have attended NUCA’s Excavation Safety & Competent Person and Confined Space Entry Training Programs.
The guiding principle of Western Summit’s safety program is: “Safety shall not be sacrificed for production, but rather considered an integral part of quality control, cost reduction and job efficiency.” While recognizing that the ultimate success of a safety and health program depends upon the full cooperation of each individual employee, the company’s safety statement makes it management’s responsibility to see that rules and procedures are adequate and enforced and that training is employed to the greatest advantage.
NUCA congratulates all the winners of the William H. Feather Safety Award. They model for other NUCA members and for the underground utility construction industry the values and behaviors essential to the creation of a safe working environment. Recipients were officially honored at the Third Annual National Awards Dinner, which was held in conjunction with NUCA’s 2006 Washington Summit and Spring Meetings, June 6-8, 2006.
The oldest and largest national trade association working solely for the utility construction industry, the Arlington, Va.-based National Utility Contractors Association has a nationwide network of chapters and represents nearly 1,400 company members that provide the workforce and materials to advance the water, sewer, gas, electric, telecommunications and construction site development industries across the country. Founded in 1964, NUCA continues to be the driving force for improving conditions in the industry by advancing and protecting the profession in the legislative and regulatory arenas and delivering the latest in safety and professional education.
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