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June is National Safety Month, and there's no better time to remind our employees to put safety first. In 1996, the National Safety Council (NSC) established June as National Safety Month in the United States with the goal of increasing public awareness of the leading safety and health risks to decrease the number of injuries and deaths at homes and workplaces.

This year, the NSC is focusing on:

  • Safety Engagement;
  • Roadway Safety;
  • Risk Reduction; and
  • Slips, trips and falls.

Make sure to visit the NSC site to find additional information and webinars on these topics.

MDOT desires to elevate and promote safety as a value. MDOT’s goal is that every day, each member of the MDOT family returns home to their loved ones, safe and sound. This will be accomplished through commitment, focus, strategies, and communication, across MDOT so all employees and those we serve in our communities are in a safe and healthy environment. With openness and professionalism, MDOT will model and act with a growth-oriented mindset towards safety that is built upon risk analysis, training, and corrective action/lessons learned. All of us are leaders of safety on-site, in offices, in the field, at home and in our communities.


Safety Commission – COVID-19 Lessons Learned

The Leadership at MDOT cares about safety and their support, demonstrates the importance of the Safety Commission.The MDOT Safety Commission is a group of safety professionals who pride themselves on instilling a value of safety within MDOT and in their respective TBU. During COVID they have been handling their day to day safety responsibilities as well as the ever-changing guidelines for the pandemic and working to keep our employees and contractors as safe as possible. Over the last year they have learned and experienced a great deal. Through this experience, they have developed lessons learned that can help MDOT growth and experience as well move forward during and through the pandemic and should anything like this ever happen again in our life time.The Leadership at MDOT cares about safety and the safety commission has importance.

  • Communication
    1. Working towards a more transparent and consistent avenue to share updates with those in safety and employees
  • Information Sharing
    1. Working closely with all TBUs to ensure information and resources are shared appropriately
  • Inclusion of Safety / Decision Making
    1. Researching the organization structure of each TBU in relation to Safety professionals and their reporting structure. Should each TBU follow a similar structure?
  • Updated Documentation
    1. Reviewing MDOT documentation to make sure all up to date
  • Improvements in Safety
    1. Utilized the pandemic to refine certain processes to improve safety for employees, managers and supervisors
  • Budgets
    1. Consider including an emergency safety needs line item
  • Supplies
    1. Establish and implement consistent purchasing processes for emergency safety related supplies
  • Safety Enforcement
    1. Ensure employees are following the most up-to-date safety guidelines.
  • Telework / Flexibility
    1. Remind employees the importance of safety workplace regardless of their location
  • Return to Work/Office
    1. This is an on-going topic and information will be shared throughout MDOT as available

Resources

MDOT Safety FAQs

Acceptable Office Stretches & Exercises: A list of acceptable stretches and exercise MDOT employees can do at their desk or worksite. These may help with common work related stressors that employees experience in terms to muscle pain.

Safety Minutes: In some meetings throughout MDOT, they are started with a Safety minute. The Safety minutes are usually a few sentences about a topic relating to safety, kitchen fires, move over law, heat exhaustion, etc. This document provides you a list of potential safety minutes to kick off your own meetings with.

TedTalk: Safety Is Dangerous | Spike Edwards


MDOT Safety Links

MDTA: Office of Environment, Safety and Risk Management

MDOT MAA: BWI Marshall Airport Safety

MDOT MPA: Safety, Environment, and Risk Management Sustainability Strategy 2020 - 2023

MDOT MTA: Safety Management & Risk Control

MDOT MVA: Safety on Maryland Roads

MDOT SHA: Office of Homeland Security & Occupational Safety

MDOT TSO: Office of Risk Management & Safety