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10 CapitalPress.com September 1, 2017 At Diamond Fruit Growers, safety is no accident Committee reminds drivers to be careful around tractors By AARON CORVIN Oregon OSHA By ALIYA HALL Diamond Fruit Growers Inc. has served a variety of agricultural markets for more than 100 years, becoming one of the largest shippers of fresh pears in North America. The farmer-owned coop- erative’s journey to business success is replete with ac- complishments in sustaining family farmers and managing warehouse operations that handle and ship high-quality pears. Yet the company, head- quartered in the Hood River Valley, also moves forward on another trek that it sees as fundamental to its current and future success: continu- ously cultivating a safe place to work. The company created the mantra “Safety is no acci- dent: The journey to zero.” It forms the core philosophy of the company’s safety com- mittee. To say it is working would be an understatement. For ex- ample, the company received the 2017 Oregon Governor’s Occupational Safety and Health Conference Safety Committee Award. Indeed, the company un- derstands that keeping peo- ple safe on the job amounts to staring complacency in the eye and overcoming it — during every safety commit- tee meeting and during every work day. “Employee safety at Dia- mond Fruit doesn’t just occur by accident, but rather through strategic and measurable planning that is constantly monitored and communicat- Capital Press Oregon OSHA/Diamond Fruit Growers Diamond Fruit Growers’ safety committee won the 2017 Oregon Governor’s Occupational Safety and Health Conference Safety Committee Award. Back row, left to right, are Alejandro Gutierrez, Rod Walton, Amador Valle and Mike Moore. Front row, left to right, are Denise Patton, Maria Morales, Millie Guisto and Linda Gray. Oregon OSHA/Diamond Fruit Growers Workers at Diamond Fruit Growers pack pears in boxes. The com- pany received the 2017 Oregon Governor’s Occupational Safety and Health Conference Safety Committee Award. ed,” said Mike Moore, human resources/safety coordinator for the company. “The safe- ty of our employees is also a journey, where the destination is zero employee accidents.” For Moore, safety is a per- sonal value. He measures suc- cess, he said, when employees are “able to return home at the end of their shift in the same physical condition as when they reported to work.” Summer through fall are very busy times for Diamond Fruit’s growers, Moore said, as they harvest and deliver crops to the warehouse. And safety stands fore- most in Moore’s mind. “Then, the work begins for us at the warehouse level,” he said, describing the 104-year- old cooperative’s process. “Communication with and observing employees in action, as well as providing and using personal protec- tive equipment, will be criti- cal components to employee safety.” A collision involving a sports car and two tractors in Gaston, Ore., on Aug. 9 has prompted the Oregon Farm Bureau Health and Safety Committee to remind drivers to be especially careful on rural roads where farmers are working or mov- ing equipment. The two oc- cupants of the car were sent to the hospi- tal. The Farm Bureau com- mittee has created a brochure to educate farmers and drivers about the dangers created when large pieces of equip- ment are sharing the road with cars. “The brochure provides tips that help save lives,” Anne Rigor, vice chair of the Oregon Farm Bureau Health and Safety Committee, said in a press release. “It’s heartbreaking to hear about injuries or deaths involving tractors that could’ve been avoided if drivers had sim- ply slowed down, or farm- ers had taken a few simple steps.” The brochure suggests that farmers who drive trac- tors on the road should mark the edges of their machines with reflective tape and re- flectors to increase visibility, turn on their lights but turn off rear spotlights, use pilot cars and install a mirror. Farmers should also be aware of heavy traffic and, if moving several farm im- plements, leave space between each vehicle for a car to pass. It is also Ore- gon law for farm- ers to place a slow-moving vehicle re- flector on any machine m o v i n g slower than 25 mph, ac- cording to the brochure. For drivers who are pass- ing farm vehicles on the road, the committee sug- gests using ample caution. The brochure also said driv- ers must yield to wide ve- hicles that are approaching them and to not assume the farmer can see or hear other vehicles. “If you’re driving 55 mph on a highway and come upon a tractor that’s moving at only 25 mph, it takes only 8 seconds to close a gap the length of a football field be- tween you and the tractor,” Rigor said. “In low light, it’s even harder to judge how fast you’re approach- ing a slow-moving farm vehicle.” Safety committees a must Oregon OSHA A strong safety commit- tee is a critical component of building a culture of safe- ty. It’s a sounding board for identifying hazards. It’s a place for employees and managers to work together to fix those hazards. If you are an employer in Oregon, your business must have a safety committee or hold safety meetings — un- less you are the sole owner and the only employee of a corporation. General industry and con- struction employers must follow the safety committee and meeting requirements under Oregon OSHA’s rules for those industries. Likewise, agriculture and forest activities employers must follow the require- ments for safety committees and meetings for their re- spective industries. If the rules seem daunt- ing, then check out Oregon OSHA’s quick guides to safety committees and safe- ty meetings for agriculture and for general industry and construction. Oregon OSHA’s most vi- olated agriculture rules in- clude no safety committees or safety meetings. In 2016, for all industries, rules about safety committees or safe- ty meetings were the No. 2 most-cited standards during Oregon OSHA inspections. Documentation of safety committee meetings was No. 4. Safety checklist for farms Oregon OSHA Sfty17-2/#7 Cultivating a safe work- place requires commit- ment and know-how on the SFTY17-3/#7 SFTY17-2/#7 part of employers. Oregon OSHA’s most vi- olated agriculture rules in- clude: toilet and hand wash- ing facilities for hand labor work, living areas and site requirements for agricultur- al labor housing, no safety committees or safety meet- ings, and no written hazard communication program. Here is a brief checklist to be mindful of when pro- moting safe practices on the farm: • You display the Oregon OSHA Job Safety and Health poster where employees will see it. • You either have an ef- fective safety committee or hold effective safety meet- ings that bring labor and management together to promote workplace safety and health. • You provide basic sani- tation facilities and supplies for agricultural workers who prepare, prune, plant, har- vest, package or do other field-crop hand labor. • You registered farm la- bor housing with Oregon OSHA by contacting the agency at least 45 days be- fore the first day of oper- ation or occupancy of any housing and related facilities that were not previously reg- istered. For more details about providing a safe agricultural workplace, read the Oregon OSHA publication “Cul- tivate a Safe Agricultural Workplace!” online at http:// osha.oregon.gov/OSHA- Pubs/2411.pdf