Congratulations All! JLab sets New Safety Milestone

The combined efforts of Jefferson Lab staff, users and subcontractors have resulted in the Lab achieving a new safety milestone. On Feb. 3, the Lab passed its previous record of 455 days without a restricted- or lost-workday accident. And by March 1 the Lab had gone 482 days without a restricted- or lost-time injury. That is 16 months, or a little more than 1,500,000 worker hours, without a mishap resulting in someone losing work time or being put on restricted work duties.

Lab Director Christoph Leemann noted the record-breaking achievement in an all-staff e-mail, saying that "outstanding science and safety go hand in hand."

During comments to JLab managers in mid-February, Chief Scientist Anthony Thomas commended the concerted effort of everyone involved in improving JLab's safety programs and encouraged managers to remain focused on safety.

"Keeping it (safety) the top priority is what gets each of us home at the end of the day in the same condition we came to work that morning," Thomas said. "This is a significant accomplishment and everyone should be proud of their part in this achievement."

JLab first achieved 455 days without a restricted- or lost-time injury in the 1980s prior to beginning civil construction on CEBAF, according to ESH&Q Reporting Manager Carter Ficklen.

"The 455-day milestone was a notable achievement back in the '80s, but it is an even more meaningful achievement now because our and DOE's injury avoidance expectations are higher," he commented.

Starting in 2004 and running through August 2005, the Lab reached nearly 400 days without a restricted- or lost-time injury; and during 2007 the Lab racked up 319 days straight without a recordable mishap.

"The Lab's safety numbers for the last three years have been good and are consistently improving," Ficklen noted. "JLab's efforts to continuously improve ESH&Q across the facility and to keep it a top priority have resulted in the Lab keeping both its recordable accident rate (TRC) and the restricted- and missed-work time rate (DART) low."

The turnaround began in 2006 with a concerted effort on the part of work groups across the Laboratory to implement a behavior-based safety process. One notable area of improvement included Engineering, then a part of the Accelerator Division. This was further strengthened by additional safety leadership training that occurred during 2007.

What are Department of Energy TRC and DART rates?
TRC (Total Recordable Case) is the number of recordable accidents per 200,000 hours worked. 200,000 hours is about 100 person-years of work – 40 hours per week for 50 weeks times 100. A recordable accident is one that requires more than first aid treatment.
DART (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred) is the number of incidents that result in lost work days, restricted work days (the worker cannot perform all of his/her normal duties) or days in which the worker is transferred to alternate duties to accommodate the injury per 200,000 hours worked.
TRC and DART are lagging indicators of a laboratory's safety performance. The rate for both numbers resets at the beginning of every fiscal year; JLab currently has a 0.00 TRC rate and a 0.00 DART rate for FY 2008.