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