Safety forum on Wednesday to focus on worker accident

Forum to feature ORNL Excess Property Sales event and how complacency had near-fatal impact

The Oak Ridge Business Safety Partnership is having a community safety forum from 8 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, December 3, at the American Museum of Science and Energy. The safety forum, free of charge and open to the public, will explore an accident in which a worker was seriously injured that occurred earlier in 2014 during a routine transfer of excess equipment from UT-Battelle to the public.

Jimmy Stone, UT-Battelle’s Facilities and Operations Director, will make a presentation about the accident, focusing specifically on what could have been done to have prevented it from occurring, a press release said.

“We appreciate Mr. Stone’s openness about the accident because we can learn from UT-Battelle’s experience and take steps to prevent a similar accident from occurring at other sites or at our own homes,” said Jenny Freeman, one of the forum’s organizers and chair of the ORBSP Planning Committee.

Others have already taken note and have implemented preventive measures based on the accident investigation, the press release said. Fran Williams, manager of Environmental Safety Health and Quality Assurance for URS CH2M of Oak Ridge (UCOR), the U.S. Department of Energy cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, will inform the audience about UCOR’s efforts to raise awareness among its staff and to implement new safety measures to prevent a similar materials handling accident.

“This is why we established the ORBSP 10 years ago,” Freeman said, “to share lessons learned to make the entire Oak Ridge Reservation and our community the safest place to work and live in the U.S.”

For more information, contact Freeman at [email protected].