Safety campaign focuses on risk management

  • Published
  • By Mark Wyatt
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Air Force Ground Safety officials recently introduced a new safety campaign to focus on risk management and on-duty safety. The campaign, known as Quest for Zero, will highlight career fields each month to increase awareness of the specific hazards those employees face each day.

Air Force Chief of Safety Maj. Gen. Kurt Neubauer said that readiness is paramount to accomplishing the mission, and the safety of every Airman is critical to ensuring that readiness is executed.

The campaign's motto, "My Job, My Life, My Choice," embodies that credo.

"Safety is a priority in all career fields," said Shelly Kelley, 66th Air Base Group Ground Safety manager. "Being aware of those hazards is the first step to mitigate those mishaps, which will preserve our most valuable asset -- our Airmen."

Each month Quest for Zero will highlight a new career field, beginning with maintenance in October.

In fiscal year 2013, maintenance mishaps accounted for 51 percent of injuries in the Air Force. Of those, the three most common injury types were sprains/strains, fractures and open wounds.

Through an awareness campaign, Quest for Zero will focus on ensuring maintainers are 100 percent focused on doing their assigned job to the absolute best of their ability, wrote Stephen Hildenbrandt, Air Force Materiel Command Ground Safety manager, in an email to safety personnel throughout the command.

He also stressed the Wingman concept, look out for one another, and use the right tool for the assigned task, wear appropriate personal protective equipment when necessary, identify safety issues up their chain of command and not take shortcuts, rush through assigned tasks or walk by a safety hazard without taking appropriate measures to fix it.

The campaign will highlight recurring mishaps and encourage use of risk management and mitigation techniques such as:

· Wear appropriate personal protective equipment
· Keep work areas clear of obstructions and hazards
· Make work platforms available when possible
· Use safety pins and devices that secure hoods, hatches, doors and ramps
· Maintain situational awareness and communicate with coworkers
· Follow procedures outlined in Air Force instructions and technical orders

Hildenbrandt went on to write that supervisors need to spend time on the floor to ensure employees are not getting complacent, that identified hazards have been removed/resolved/mitigated and that technical orders and standard operation procedures are being followed.

According to Air Force safety officials, other career fields susceptible to injury include: logistics, security forces, services and civil engineering.

"This safety campaign will help ensure employees remain safe, which is a priority of the Hanscom leadership team," Kelley said. "But it will also ensure that the Air Force achieves its mission to fly, fight and win."

To learn more about the Quest for Zero campaign, contact the Hanscom Safety Office at 781-225-5584 or visit the Air Force Safety Center Ground Safety SharePoint site here.