AREA safety staff takes ‘Caught Between’ statewide

AREA’s safety staff has developed a program, called Caught Between, in response to a real-life
situation at one of our co-ops that fortunately did not result in an injury, but very easily could have.

The program focuses on the potential for serious injury or death when a worker is caught in machinery, or when he is pinned between equipment and another solid object or between two moving objects.

The staff borrowed elements of the program from another industry, but altered the message to mirror the hazards faced by electrical workers. AREA initially presented it to the co-op, and used feedback from the employees to refine and focus the message. Staffers also used actual co-op scenarios to stage photos to illustrate the hazards, and to give them a real-world application.

The program is another example of the ways the safety staff tries to better communicate and relate to the co-ops. “We’re trying to get the safety program to be as real to life as it can,” says Michael Kelley, AREA’s director of safety.

So far, the staff has presented the program to 14 co-ops and two municipals.