Breakout Session Summary Utility Industry November 1-2, 2007

Overall Utility Industry Trends  In 2006, the utilities industry experienced 6.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers…but cyclic historically.  Transportation incidents … 31 percent.  Mostly highway incidents  Contact with harmful environments …29 percent.  Mostly contact with electric current  Falls…15 percent.  Non-supervised contract workers…at much higher risk

Organizational Consistency With Trends  Transportation incidents were not reflective of breakout group experience  Consistency with:  Electric contact incidents  Falls  Non- supervised contract worker incidents

Most Significant Contributing Causes  “High risk work methods”...e.g. energized v. de-energized work  Long accepted, tolerated, condoned risk taking culture…which attracts risk taking employees  Over-reliance on PPE for mitigating high risk exposures  Suspected cognitive overload  Employee compliance with existing rules/procedures  Management enforcement of existing rules/procedures  Lack of consistency re: contractor oversight

Most Significant Organizational Weaknesses  Internal and external financial rewards for risk taking…online MW capacity, no customer outages  Leaders without safety leadership knowledge/skills  Career altering management accountability is limited  “Real” management commitment/involvement at all levels is limited  Application of serious consequences for deviant worker behavior is inconsistent  Inability to exercise real control of contractors..storm restoration, plant outage

Solutions & Best Practices for Fatality Prevention  Change the work methods  Improve safety through design v. PPE reliance  Further developing the pre-task briefing skills and risk assessment processes  Resolve contractor oversight issues  Step up personal accountability at all levels including contractors  Step up leadership and trade worker development

Areas of Future Research  Facilitate industry-wide debate and consensus to challenge accepted work methods  Study how to improve risk assessment and mitigation at organizational and task levels  Study ways to successfully challenge internal/external organizational and financial risk drivers  Capture/share senior manager best practices  Pro-active storm restoration mutual aid and contractor engagement

The Pittsburgh Survey  Crystal Eastman  100 years ago … “Death Calendar”  Researched effects of work on society  Published “Work Accidents and the Law”  526 workers killed in Allegheny County  Steel, coal and railroad industries  Crystal would be proud of us today  Many thanks to IUP and ALCOA