Pit & Quarry, August 2017

safety Lehigh Hansons safety and health initiatives boosted safety across its operations reducing injury rates by 20 percent ehigh Hanson advanced its safety and health initiatives over the last few years As a result the company has experienced a 20 percent reduction in injury rates across its more than 550 company sites Some of the companys safety advancements are a tribute to the leadership of Randy Mucha former corporate director of health and safety at Lehigh Hanson The National Stone Sand Gravel Association selected Mucha as its James M Christie Safety Health Professional of the Year for 2017 because of his work at by MEGAN SMALLEY Lehigh Hanson I was honored to receive the award Mucha says To be selected and nominated for this by peers in the industry is a real honor When you get something like this it shows that someone outside your company saw what you did Mucha retired from his position last December and Lehigh Hanson hired Patrick James to serve in a similar capacity as vice president of environment safety and health Prior to this position James worked at Rio Tinto in health safety and environmental functions Mucha James plans to continue to build on the initiatives Mucha implemented at the company along with additional program components Pit Quarry recently connected with both James and Mucha to discuss how Lehigh Hansons safety culture has evolved in recent years Looking back on your career Randy what motivated you to remain in a safety and health position in the aggregate industry Mucha I served in the aggregate industry as a safety and health professional for 30 years and sometimes wondered why I stayed in the business for so long I guess the only answer is that my job was never done I always had 10 more things to do at the end of each day and that excited me What were some specific steps Lehigh Hanson took to achieve that 20 percent reduction in injury rates across its sites Mucha After HeidelbergCement acquired Lehigh Hanson and the Lehigh Cement and Hanson businesses were integrated in North America we looked at health and safety not just as a program but also as part of the business We didnt want to be looked at as a separate department or initiative we wanted to be part of operations We surveyed our operations with the help of Behavioral Science Technology in 2011 and looked at different qualities of where we stood in health and safety Out of all the topics we rated health and safety rated high I attribute that to our strong training But we suffered with regard to trust according to the survey I believe that was a result of three companies coming together in the acquisition and the business climate coming out of the Great Recession There were challenges but if you build up the whole companys culture from the top down your safety and health records will improve This is especially true if you build trust Were there any other initiatives that helped to boost the companys safety records over the past decade Mucha We began to celebrate HeidelbergCement Worldwide Safety Week once Lehigh Hanson branded railcars at the companys Servtex Quarry in New Braunfels Texas 62 PIT QUARRY August 2017 pitandquarry com PHOTO COURTESY OF LEHIGH HANSON ProgreSSiNg sAfeTY L