Articles tagged: Safety Culture

In many small municipalities, the role of safety officer is often assigned rather than developed. It may fall to a supervisor, a senior operator, or a dedicated employee who simply has an interest in safety. In the best cases, that individual may bring experience from a volunteer fire department or …

A municipal safety officer plays a critical role in protecting public works employees, reducing organizational risk, and ensuring compliance with safety regulations. In an environment where crews are exposed to traffic, heavy equipment, confined spaces, and unpredictable field conditions, the safety…

Public works employees face a wide range of hazards due to the hands-on, outdoor, and often traffic-adjacent nature of their work. While specific risks vary by department, injury data across municipalities and agencies tends to show consistent patterns. The following are the top five causes of injur…

Highway crews operate in some of the most hazardous work environments in public works. Fast moving traffic, heavy equipment, changing weather, noise exposure, and uneven terrain create a constant mix of risks. Personal protective equipment, or PPE, serves as the last line of defense when engineering…

A strong safety training program is one of the most important investments a public works or highway department can make. Crews work around heavy equipment, traffic, confined spaces, chemical hazards, and unpredictable weather. Training gives workers the knowledge and confidence to perform tasks safe…

Salt and sand spreaders are essential tools for maintaining safe winter roadways, but they also introduce a range of hazards that crews must manage carefully. Operators work around heavy equipment, moving conveyors, spinning disks, and corrosive materials, often in darkness or bad weather. A well ma…

Winter storm operations often require highway and public works crews to work through the night, sometimes for twelve, sixteen, or even twenty-four hours straight. These long shifts are necessary to keep roads safe for the public, but they also create a serious safety concern for the workers behind t…

In many states, municipal employees are not protected by OSHA or an OSHA approved State Plan. That does not reduce the risks faced by highway crews, water and sewer workers, sanitation teams, parks staff, mechanics, or stormwater field crews. The hazards remain the same, and so should the level of p…

Public works employees face hazards every day. They work with heavy equipment, traffic, excavation hazards, electrical systems, chemicals, and confined spaces. Yet in many states, these workers are not protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Understanding why this gap …

Every year, public works crews are injured and utilities are damaged because someone assumed a small dig was safe. Installing sign posts, placing delineators, repairing drainage structures, planting trees, and even setting mailboxes can bring workers dangerously close to buried electric lines, gas s…

A Job Safety Analysis, often called a JSA, is one of the most effective tools a public works department can use to prevent accidents. It breaks a job into simple steps, identifies the hazards in each step, and outlines the controls crews must use to stay safe. A strong JSA improves safety, strengthe…

Public works departments rarely have open calendars. Crews juggle road repair, drainage maintenance, seasonal demands, and emergency responses. With so much happening, safety training is often something supervisors intend to do more of, yet the schedule never seems to allow it. The solution is simpl…