Safety-first culture priority for TAPS
Trans Alaska Pipeline System has one of its safest years ever

Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) workers finished 2003 with fewer safety incidents than any time since safety records were first tracked in 1995.

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company employees had eight U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) reportable incidents and no lost workdays in 2003.

Reportable incidents include any event that causes somebody to require medical treatment beyond basic first aid or examination. Any injury that requires even a single dose of a prescribed medication, for example, would be reportable. Alyeska’s reportable incidents in 2003 included such injuries as foreign substances in eyes, an employee who was rear-ended while driving a company vehicle on a public road and a sprain from a slip.

The formula for measuring TAPS injury rates includes both Alyeska employees and contractors. TAPS finished 2003 with a total of 25 reportable incidents, down from a four-year average of 61 incidents per year. Eleven of these incidents involved lost time. They ranged from lacerations that required stitches to slips, trips and falls. The most serious injury was a broken leg.

Alyeska’s improved safety record is the result of a change in corporate culture, said Hank Wladkowski, manager of safety and industrial health for the company.

“We want workers to go home in at least the same physical condition that they were in when they reported for work,” Wladkowski said. “This means we all have to think about safety all the time.”

Alyeska has taken many steps to increase safety awareness. Every worker must attend safety-training sessions. Workers must be appropriately trained before they are allowed to enter certain work areas. And every manager and supervisor is required to take three days of training about a broad spectrum of safety management issues and company expectations. They follow up with regular work-area visits designed to increase safety awareness and decrease incidents.

“We now track all safety incidents, which include any job-related illnesses or injuries, right down to paper cuts and near misses,” said David Shassetz, Alyeska’s safety programs coordinator. “We use this information to discover and mitigate potential safety problems.”

“TAPS contractors must now meet the same safety standards as Alyeska workers,” said Wladkowski. “Poor safety practices could cause contractors to lose a contract or keep them from getting it in the first place.”

“Good safety is good business,” said Wladkowski. “The kind of workers we want won’t work for unsafe operations. And safe practices improve worker morale and pride and reduce costs associated with everything from insurance premiums to repairs and downtime.”

Shassetz agrees. “Safety has to be a pipeline basic. Everybody from Congress to the general public is watching how we perform. If we can’t get safety right, how can anybody expect us to run the rest of our business properly?”