HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Public Safety (Committee) - 12/20/1988 City of Kent
SAFETY COMMITTEE MINUTES
December 20, 1988
Present: Bruce Lipp, Jim Ausburn, Don Fronsdahl, Barbara
Keohane, Jennifer Carey, Lori Brown and Joe Sams
FIRE
Incident: Employee bent down to lift a victim onto a
backboard. While lifting, the employee injured
back.
Comments: The Safety Committee determined that this accident
was nonpreventable under the circumstances.
PARKS
Incident: An employee tripped going down the stairs in City
Hall and twisted an ankle.
Comments: The Safety Committee felt that this accident was
preventable, and recommended that employees use
more caution when going up and down stairs.
FIRE
Incident: During a Wet Hose drill, an employee injured his
back as he was rolling hose.
Comments: The Safety Committee felt that this accident was
nonpreventable due to the nature of this particular
drill.
FIRE
Incident: An employee injured her back while moving files
from a cabinet to a box.
Comments: This accident was determined to be preventable and
the employee has been counseled regarding proper
lifting procedures.
PUBLIC WORKS
Incident: Employee injured foot while making repairs to a
watermain. The employee's shovel got lodged in
between a bolt and a repair coupler. When the
employee stepped on the shovel, the instep of the
foot was injured.
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December 20, 1988
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Comments: The Committee felt that this accident was
nonpreventable under these working conditions.
POLICE
Incident: A vehicle was damaged while pushing a disabled
vehicle out of the path of traffic. ,Accident
occurred because pushbars did not hold.
Comments: The Committee felt that this accident was also
nonpreventable. The possibility of changing
procedures to accommodate examination of pushbars
as part of routine inspections was discussed.
However, it was felt that this type of incident
occurs too infrequently and this would not be a
cost effective modification of existing procedures.
PUBLIC WORKS
Incident: Employee threw a chunk of black top and injured his
back.
Comments: The Committee felt that this was a preventable
accident. The supervisor has instructed employees
to use two people when removing black top from a
work site, and to lift the chunks rather than
flinging them.
ENGINEERING
Incident: An employee tripped and twisted an ankle while
carrying mailbag into the office.
Comments: This was considered to be a preventable accident
and the committee recommended that the employee
take more care when carrying bulky loads.
Also discussed was the development of the new Safety Award
Program that was intended to begin in 1989. The Personnel
Department will begin gathering statistics regarding the number
of accidents experienced by each City department in 1988, and
then use these figures as base rates for 1989. Methods for
publicizing this new program were briefly discussed at this
meeting, discussion will be continued at the January meeting.
The possibility of purchasing picture frames for safety bulletins
in the individual departments was discussed and will be
investigated. Safety members also expressed an interest in
reviewing the results of the recent Labor and Industries audit
of the City of Kent.