Safety Corner

Statement of Purpose:  The purpose of the Local 99 Health and Safety Committee is to promote the health and well being of the Membership and their families, both at work and at home.

Safety Corner:  On the website, all mailings and other pertinent information will be posted under a tab known as “Safety Corner” The content will grow over time and hopefully be a great resource for the membership and their families

Safety Email:  Safety@IBEW99.org has been established as your quick link to the safety committee.  If you have a question or concern about safety, we want to help.  Ultimately the goal is to keep everyone out of harm’s way and that takes a cooperative and collaborative partnership between all parties.  Injuries are bad for families, they are bad for business, they are simply bad.  Together we believe we can improve on our already great track record here at Local 99, 

Bi-Weekly articles:  It is the Safety Committees intention to send a blast email on a bi-weekly basis dealing with a real and applicable safety topic.  We will start this with an extremely important one today.  We encourage you to share them with your friends and families; it may just change their lives. 

Respect the Widow Maker

For those without Line Crew experience, you may only know the Widow Maker as the Main Artery to the Human Heart being blocked or perhaps a Rodeo Bulls name, but in our world it is even more frightening than those. 

After a large wind storm the ground is littered with branches and sometimes full trees.  What is often unseen however are the trees that are left standing but weakened or undermined by the storm.  Oversaturation of the soil form the rain, cracked limbs and torn root structures make standing trees a ticking time bomb.  These tress can fall minutes or months after a storm passes with little or no warning.

This poses an incredible threat to our Outside crews, but the threat is equally as severe to your family.  It is crucial that you inspect your own property and look for large branches hanging loose up high, branches or trees leaning on Overhead spans, Leaning trees, Cracked limbs or any indication that something is just not right. 

With another pending storm rolling in tonight, many weakened trees will fall tonight.  That may take away the risk of them falling on the June Garden Party around your pool, but it will create a hazard today that you and your family must be aware of. Be aware of any trees hanging over your home and don’t allow children and pets to be outside any closer than the height of a tree that could be weak.  

For those who think “it won’t happen to me” let’s remember that 8 people were killed in the last storm due to falling trees.  For the further naysayers, you should know this:

Brother Ryan MacDonald, 36 years old, from Local 223 was killed by a falling tree on his ride home from work just a few days ago. He leaves a wife and 2 children.  

Please take a moment to think of Ryan and how his tragic death can raise awareness so we can help prevent this in our own lives. 

Committee Members:   Anthony Demambro (Keeper of the Record). Al Desplaines, Ed Conway, Dave Watson, Mike Daley, Joe Walsh