Guilford Gold
On June 26 representatives from Guilford Rail System attended a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. At the ceremony, the E.H. Harriman Memorial Awards Institute's Gold Medal was presented to Guilford for railroad safety. In winning the award, Guilford achieved an injury ratio of 1.16 injuries per 200,00 man-hours worked. These results bestow on Guilford the knowledge of being the safest railroad in its class, while also being among the safest of all railroads in the country, for the year of 1997.
Railroads throughout the country are separated into four categories. The categories are based on man-hours worked. Group A consists of the nation's five largest railroads and Amtrak, all of which have at least 15 million man-hours per year. Group B is composed of nine large and medium sized freight and commuter carriers having a minimum of 4 million man-hours per year. Guilford is placed in the highly competitive group C, with approximately 20 other regional railroads having less than 4 million but more than 250,000 man-hours per year. Each category awards a gold, silver and bronze medal. The winners are chosen by a committee of individuals in the transportation field including the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration and the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Awards are presented to railroads on the basis of the lowest casualty rates per 200,000 employee-hours worked. The formula takes into account the volume of work performed, as well as the number of fatalities, injuries and occupational illnesses.
The Gold Harriman Award is the one commendation that everyone in the railroad industry strives for. It is the acknowledgement and reminder of the importance of a safe workplace. It acknowledges outstanding performance, but also reminds companies and their workforce that safety can only be reached when a commitment is made by all.
In discussing the importance of the Award, Guilford President Dave Fink commented, "A safe workplace doesn't just happen. It takes complete and total dedication by every manager and every employee on the property. Our people should take great pride in the accomplishments of 1997, but we must also realize that one injury is too many. Winning the Harriman is both an acknowledgement of our past successes and a call to do better."
An effective safety effort maens more than just another gold medal for Guilford's wall, it has a direct impact on the overall character of the railroad. When a railroad is safe, it is performing efficiently. Safety makes a significant contribution to Guilford's bottom line and to the organization's ability to achieve the goal of maintaining its position as New England's most successful railroad.
More important than the finacial impact of the safety effort is its importance to another group of individuals who trust everything is being done to ensure safety. Those individuals are the friends and family of every railroad employee. To ensure that at the end of a workday a person will return home safely to those loved ones, everyone in the workplace must share in the responsibility. The Harriman Award is a constant reminder of that necessary commitment. It is an awrd given on one day of the year to applaud a three hundred and sixty-five-day effort and obligation.