Our Safety Director, Mark Bulthuis, is a certified OSHA Outreach Instructor, a founding member and the acting Chair of the A.B.C. Safety Steering Committee since 2005.

SAFE NEEDS TO BE EASY. Training is one thing. Practices that make safety easy are another. Not only are our training sessions held regularly, the first half day of our new team members time with us is spent dealing with safety issues, and all of our electrical service trucks our equipped with a full set of category Z PPE.

SAFE SHOULDN’T BE PROPRIETARY. Safe practices shouldn’t be kept a secret. We’re proud of our safety ratings. We want GM’s who value safety to take notice, but we want everyone to be safe. It’s why our Safety Director spends so many hours training not only our own team, but working in conjunction with G.R.C.C. and the A.B.C. West Michigan Chapter to promote safety training and safe practices.

LONG-TERM SAFETY. We can’t really claim our worksites are safe if we address accidents, but not health. A person who is deaf in his right ear because he’s right handed and spends hours and years wearing his eardrum out is just as much of a safety failure as a guy who fell off dangerous scaffolding. Long-term safety won’t show up on the EMR rating. But it’s very important to us.

Our safety system is built around a highly qualified Safety Director, Regular and Unscheduled Safety Inspections, Regular Safety Evaluations, Comprehensive Safety Training which includes NFPA 70E Safety Training, CPR/First Aid training and certification for all field employees, regular reviews of our formal Parkway Safety Policy, and a practice of putting safety devices close to our people to make it easy to use even when time is an issue.

REGULAR AND REPETITVE TRAINING INCLUDES:

- Aerial Lift Certification
- Asbestos Awareness
- CPR/First Aid
- Confined Space
- Fall Protection
- Forklift Certification
- High Voltage
- Lockout/Tagout
- Rough Terrain
- Trailer Pulling
- Power Actuated Tools
- Weekly interactive toolbox talks
- 10 Hour & 30

A.B.C. GOLD CERTIFICATE FOR SAFETY TRAINING & EVALUATION PROCESS(S.T.E.P.)

Water is water. It’s nothing special but it doesn’t have to be to contribute to worksite safety. After hearing of some issues with heat stroke, we decided to do a little hydration exercise. We visited work sites and handed out water in bottles that listed the signs of heat exhaustion and what to do if it occurs.

What to do if it does happen:
Get the victim out of the heat into a cooler place. Place the person on their back with their feet elevated. Remove or loosen the victim’s clothing. Cool the victim by fanning and applying cold packs. Give the victim one-half glassful of water every 15 minutes, if they are conscious and can tolerate it. These steps should bring improvement within a half hour.

Every year there are hundreds of MIOSHA Construction Safety Rules Violations.

Sometimes these violations are discovered because of inspections. Sometimes they’re discovered after an accident.

Either way, most are avoidable. We’re listing the top ten as they might apply to us to show you the kinds of dangers we’re working to prevent.