Employee Injuries This Past Summer in Indiana Reduced By 35 Percent
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - By focusing on its 100 busiest construction days, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reduced employee injuries by 35 percent during the dangerous summer months. INDOT's "100 Safe Days of Summer" employee safety awareness campaign ran from June 26 to October 2. The agency's safety directors targeted this time for one simple reason: these historically are the one hundred days when INDOT workers have the greatest exposure to on-the-job dangers, particularly highway work zone accidents.
The "100 Safe Days of Summer" kicked off with an emotional video plea from Bonnie Ward, who asked INDOT workers to follow safety all procedures and take care of one another. Ward's brother Ronnie was killed in a highway work zone accident in 2005. Other components adding to the culture of safety during the "100 Safe Days of Summer" campaign included safety videos, daily safety meetings, on-the-job reminders and a weekly safety scorecard.
The 100 Safe Days of Summer campaign resulted in a 35 percent reduction in on-the-job injuries over the same time period last year. Based on the average cost of a typical worksite injury, that is a savings of more than $75,000 for Hoosier taxpayers. Most important, no INDOT workers have been killed on the job so far this year. INDOT thanks Hoosier motorists for helping to make this summer a safe one by using caution while driving through INDOT highway work zones.
