In early October, the flagger for a Lewis Tree Service mowing crew noticed that a gas line shared the corridor on a utility right-of-way. The general foreman conducted a pre-job walkthrough with the crew. The terrain was uneven, slippery, covered in thick brush and, in it, they found debris from an old railroad. As the general foreman came...
What stories do the cuts on your chaps tell? Next time you ask field leadership to inspect chaps, say, “Tell us the story of what happened.” Or place damaged chaps in front of crews and ask what they think happened. After they take turns guessing, tell the actual story. What are their stories? What makes kickback more likely? What actions do...
When studying struck-by close calls, we discovered several recurring patterns. Commonalities in some of these close calls were crews working in remote areas who seldom asked for help, and over reliance on break cuts when other types of cuts would have been more effective. Why? Because crews were more comfortable with break cuts; they were their...
As COVID-19 spreads, there are an increasing number of leaders and team members absent due to illness, precautionary self-quarantine, childcare, etc. To adapt to this situation, teams reconfigure, and leaders fill in, but ultimately there are not enough people to cover the work and our systems become stressed and stretched.
Our work environments are highly variable and include difficult terrains, changing and extreme weather conditions, myriad tree species/conditions, and energized lines
As most reading this can attest, for decades the traditional view of safety in the utility line clearance industry centered around defining and following policies and practices...
“I’ll never forget that day as long as I live. It was winter and fresh snow was heavy on the tree limbs as we began piecing down a 50 ft. pine. We were wearing layers of clothing and could see our breath when we pulled our face masks down to talk.”
Wednesday, at Lewis Tree Service, is now Drill Day. On Drill Day, we are creating the space to practice simple tasks that have the potential to cause serious injuries. And, as it turns out, we’re having fun in the process. Some of the drills have included a) dropping limbs from heights onto watermelons (with and without hardhats) to see the...
There’s a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein that we’ve all seen, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That perfectly reflects how Lewis approached safety for many years. We made significant improvements in our safety results and then hit a plateau achieving only marginal gains every...
Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons when Ned Flanders is discussing the difference between apple cider and apple juice? Homer’s brain floats away saying, “You can stay but I’m leaving.” We can all relate. When our brains get bored, we zone out. That’s why, at Lewis, we’re learning a situational awareness tool called “scan and focus.”
An interesting pattern emerged when we began analyzing close call data at Lewis Tree Service. When considering frequency, we learned that line of fire—by vehicle—has as much serious injury potential as struck-by, tree-related incidents. Yet, if you studied just our incident data, that picture would not emerge.
