Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety (2022)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

34 Case Examples As noted in Chapter 1, follow-up case examples were conducted to gather further details regarding processes and strategies for effective use of SMSs in managing highway maintenance- worker safety. The case examples were executed by web interviews between the study team and selected DOTs. The DOT’s survey respondent was contacted to participate in the case example and was encouraged to invite individuals experienced with their SMSs to participate in the conversation. The semi-structured interviews followed the questions outlined in Appendix C but often drifted toward unique experiences with each state. Five state DOTs were selected for case studies based on their survey responses. These state DOTs were specifically targeted based on their experience with SMSs and, thus, being able to share lessons learned and effective practices. The criteria used to select the experienced case- example state DOTs included that they • Have an implemented SMS. • Use the SMS for reporting and tracking. • Have used their SMS for more than 3 years. The five state DOTs experienced with SMSs selected for interviews were Connecticut, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Each state’s interviews are summarized in the following sections and broken into seven distinct sections: the decision process for implementing an SMS, an over- view of the organizational structure, deployment and management of the SMS, features and benefits of the SMS, policies and procedures regarding the SMS, cost, and lessons learned. 4.1 Connecticut The Connecticut DOT was created in 1895 and renamed in 1969. With approximately 3,000 employees, the agency serves the fourth-ranked state by population density in the United States, with a mission to “provide a safe and efficient intermodal transportation network that improves the quality of life and promotes economic vitality for the State and the region” (Connecticut DOT 2021). With more than 1,000 maintenance employees, as indicated in the Connecticut DOT survey response, this mission involves maintaining 3,719 centerline miles of state-maintained roadways and 4,028 bridges. In 2019, the Connecticut DOT implemented a $2.6 billion budget for their capital and operating program. 4.1.1 Decision-Making Process Safety-related decisions in the Connecticut DOT are often driven by data management and information systems. To achieve better data and information management and make better- informed decisions, the agency transitioned from a paper-based SMS to a new electronic SMS. C H A P T E R 4

Case Examples 35   The previous system involved a handwritten and paper-based process for documentation. In terms of the capacity to predict safety performance, the previous system was reactive in nature and allowed statistical overview of the types of injuries and incidents on a broad scale. However, the new SMS system, which is completely electronic, allows the agency to gain a deeper insight into particular cases and draw on data in a way that indicates areas of safety concern. Although the Connecticut DOT is still using a relatively small component of the SMS, it helped the agency to move from looking to reactive data, such as workers’ compensation, to obtaining analytical insight and relationships between safety variables. This helped the agency to be more proactive and point out areas of improvement based on performance leading indicators. As a result, the new system enables the Connecticut DOT to make data-driven decisions, especially long-term strategic decisions such as resources allocation. 4.1.2 Organizational Structure The Connecticut DOT has a Division of Occupational Health and Safety. Historically, the division reported through the Department of Human Resources. Recently, this structure has changed, with occupational health and safety moved from human resources to the Commis- sioner’s Office. In other words, the reporting chain formerly funneled up to the Chief of Bureau of Finance and Administration. Today, the Division of Occupational Health and Safety reports directly to the Commissioner’s Chief of Staff. The new dynamic in the organizational structure helped the agency to make employee health and safety more effective and visible as one of the cornerstones of the organization. With four districts under highway operations and five districts under engineering and construction, the Division of Occupational Health and Safety is staffed with two tiers of safety advisors (Advisor I and Advisor II) reporting to the director of the division, who reports to the commissioner’s chief of staff. The Connecticut DOT also employs nurses on staff and a medical clinic running under the medical control of the University of Connecticut. In addition, within the chain of command of highway operations, each district has a training coordinator responsible for coordinating health and safety training. This organi- zational structure helps the division to effectively work with employees in highway operations and construction and engineering. 4.1.3 SMS Deployment and Management To manage safety, the Connecticut DOT uses a commercial safety-database solutions system. The system is a cloud-based enterprise safety-database system that provides a centralized repository to manage and track safety data and safety trends. Protected by approved firewalls, the system is used by different state and federal agencies such as NASA. The Connecticut DOT uses it to collect, track, and manage health and safety data and identify safety trends. For pro- gram administration purposes, the occupational health and safety division of the Connecticut DOT assigned two staff members with safety and computer science backgrounds to manage and customize the program to a certain degree. The administrators can locally customize the system according to the agency’s needs. However, some customization requires collaborating with the system developers. 4.1.4 SMS’s Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Mechanisms Used Although the Connecticut DOT uses a relatively small component of the commercial product, its SMS system was described as powerful and capable of performing different functions, including safety data collection, accidents and injury management, data analysis and trend identification, medical monitoring, and the like. The system is not only capable of performing such functions internally but also has been used by the Connecticut DOT to manage construction contractors’

36 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety safety incidents. Although contractors are not required to use the system at this stage, the Connecticut DOT relies on its own safety staff to use the system and report and document construction contractors’ work incidents. The system has different features and modules, such as occupational health, safety, training, industry hygiene, and other modules that can be customized based on the user needs. Within each module, there are different functions and capabilities. For example, in addition to managing the safety aspect related to incident reporting and corrective actions, the safety module provides functions that handle audits and inspections, compliance management, risk, and other functions related to safety. One of the important features is the capability of the system to customize data points in different ways, allowing for various analytical insights. The analysis can be powerful as the incident data-entry portal allows detailed input of safety incidents ranging from the type of incident, reasons and description of incidents, actions that have been taken or recommended by supervisors, photographs of incidents, cause analysis, findings and actions, and other features that support different data analysis. The system allows direct uploading of different files, such as PDF incident forms and reports and incident photographs, and a feature that enables the agency to use the system for safety records and documentation purposes. Some components of the Connecticut DOT SMS can only be accessed through the intranet, a feature that limits employee’s accessibility to these components of the system. The Connecticut DOT is looking to make the system more accessible to the average employee through the Internet. When it comes to benefits realized from using the system, the agency has not conducted an analysis to quantify tangible immediate returns, such as reduction in injury rates or workers’ compensation. However, several other benefits associated with managing safety were cited. Such benefits include gaining a proactive view of performance that allows for informed decisions based on leading indicators. Another benefit realized from the system is the ability to customize data in different ways that not only helps the agency to gain a deeper look into the drivers of safety trends but also inform a better allocation of safety resources, such as training, equipment, and other resources. 4.1.5 Policies and Procedures When it comes to policies pertaining to the SMS system, the Connecticut DOT specifies, in its internal safety policy, the name of their commercial product as the system that has been adopted to manage occupational health and safety. The Connecticut DOT procedures for licensed administrators allows them to log into the system portal using their license credentials. The administrators’ license allows them to have in-depth administrative access where they can enter cases and manage data even from their cell phones. The system is capable of providing access to all employees. 4.1.6 Costs of SMS The cost of acquiring, maintaining, and managing the SMS system depends on the custom- ization, features, and capacity of the module(s) used. For the Connecticut DOT, the cost of acquiring the system was approximately $120,000, with an annual license cost of $7,000 that varies depending on the number of licenses used. A reasonable description of the cost model for this system is “you get what you pay for.” Therefore, additional costs may apply for additional programming, customization, and adjustments of the system. In addition, the cost of managing the system depends on the extent the system is used to manage safety. For example, as the Connecticut DOT is moving toward a data-driven decision-making model, the cost of managing the system increases as collecting, tracking, and analyzing the data requires more time and effort.

Case Examples 37   4.1.7 SMS Implementation Suggestions and Lessons Learned Lessons learned by the Connecticut DOT occupational health and safety division include the “how-to” and “how-long” aspects of the SMS implementation. Adopting and implementing a new SMS requires significant efforts and resources. As a result of resource availability and limitations, the Connecticut DOT gradually implemented the new SMS. However, the occupa- tional health and safety division recommends a 1-year time frame for implementing the system with dedication of the required resources to train the staff and roll out the system. Another suggestion related to acquiring and implementing the system was associated with commitment from leadership and crews. To gain the leadership support and maintain the resources neces- sary to operate and maintain the system, the impact of the system has to be shown and made visible to everyone so people can see the results and invest in the system. While the execu- tive team has to set the stage and show commitment to achieve the goals, another important aspect to successfully implementing the system is gaining the commitment of the field crews. It is of crucial importance for the system to successfully work that managers, supervisors, and superintendents understand and accept the system and are willing to actively participate in and support it. 4.2 Nevada The Nevada Department of Highways was established in 1917 and later became the Nevada Department of Transportation (the Nevada DOT). The Nevada DOT has grown into an active roadway program with approximately $600 million in annual capital outlays. The Nevada DOT plans, designs, constructs, operates, and maintains 5,400 miles of highway and more than 1,000 bridges. The program is managed through three districts and 1,800 employees. Among their organizational goals is a safety-first mentality (Nevada DOT 2021). 4.2.1 Decision-Making Process The Nevada DOT hosts an in-house developed SMS, developed by what was described as a supportive IT office. The SMS has been in place for some time but has been taking its current form since 2012. In 2012, the incoming safety manager reviewed the SMS in comparison to OSHA-required programs. Nevada, having a state-plan OSHA program, adopted all of the federal OSHA requirements. At that time, the SMS was not fully functional across all of the required safety and health programs, as some were either out-of-date or not completed. The state OSHA program has many requirements, including one for an SMS of any employer with more than 10 employees. The safety program is also required and should have written elements for identifying hazards, conducting accident investigations, providing training, track- ing disciplinary actions, and maintaining a top management commitment. The Nevada DOT decision to invest in the SMS and safety program in general comes from a top-down commitment to safety and a strong safety culture. 4.2.2 Organizational Structure The Nevada DOT central-office safety group is led by a safety manager with five programs, including drug and alcohol enforcement, commercial driver licensing, safety training, safety inspections, and workers’ compensation. The staff includes a workers’ compensation claims manager, safety trainer, and a safety inspector. The Nevada DOT is insured by the Nevada Risk Management Department and contracts with a third party to manage worker-compensation claims data and payments.

38 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety The safety group reports to a human resources director who then reports directly to the deputy director of the Nevada DOT. This short chain of command to executive leadership of the Nevada DOT is beneficial to the safety program and allows for quick resolution of safety- related issues. Any resistance to compliance or misunderstanding of OSHA or American National Standards Institute (ANSI; regarding safety apparel) requirements at a district level can quickly and easily be resolved through meeting at the deputy director level to address challenges and obstacles. As mentioned previously, there are three Nevada DOT districts. Each district has a training officer who may coordinate with the central-office safety group on safety and health issues and to seek recommendations. The central-office safety group is responsible for providing the safety training and inspections. 4.2.3 SMS Deployment and Management The Nevada DOT SMS entails several modules with controlled workflows as developed through collaboration with the Nevada DOT’s IT group. The Nevada DOT has a database for tracking and managing crashes that occur with their commercial vehicle drivers. When crashes occur, safety inspectors will submit information to the database and can use the data to investi- gate trends, schedule loss-control meetings with district safety officers, and address issues. The central-office safety inspector is a certified accident investigator. This results in a data-driven program regarding commercial vehicle crashes. The Nevada DOT also has incident reporting for noncommercial vehicles. If a non commercial crash or accident occurs, an employee is trained to notify their supervisor, who will gather a team to complete an investigation and a crash report form that is uploaded to a Microsoft SharePoint database. The “who, what, when, where, why, and how it could have been prevented” of the incident are captured. This is inclusive of a review of equipment maintenance and operators prior to the incident. The report workflow then processes the report to include the district engineer and central office. All review and sign the report. The system then allows for investigating trends, looking for prevention measures, and calling meetings to review specific incidents if needed. The Nevada DOT also has a workers’ compensation system that can examine injury trends by type or other factors. Doing so allows the safety group to consider prevention measures and recommendations to address repetitive injuries, traumatic injuries, or accidents in work zones. The Nevada DOT safety group worked closely with their internal IT office to create the database and SMS. The IT group was able to include controls within the system to share the data with those who need it and who are approved to have it; the data is not shared with all employees. The system also allows for developing an annual report for review. Along with the previous functions, another module of the SMS is the safety training database. This database helps district training officers ensure employees are trained in their specific job duties and that the training is up-to-date. The district training officer, with assistance from the central-office training officer, delivers all the required hands-on equipment training. The SMS not only logs and tracks training hours data but allows a comparison of this information to incident reports to determine additional training needs. In comparing incident trends and training provided, they can identify gaps in knowledge delivered and recommend improve- ments to their program. 4.2.4 SMS’s Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Mechanisms Used The Nevada DOT SMS includes features for crash investigation, workers’ compensation claims, training tracking, and the review of trends. The benefits of completing this system are

Case Examples 39   apparent through a review of injury data from 2011 to the present. In 2011, there were 145 work- related injuries and, while COVID-19 played a role, in 2020, there were only 55 work-related injuries. A better comparison is to the 75 work-related injuries of 2019, which still shows a significant improvement. Further, improvement is noted in the workers’ compensation claims. The workers’ compensa- tion claims manager conducts training with workers and supervisors every quarter. The training performed is based on the noted injuries and claims. In 2011, the cost per claim was $18,000, and the cost per claim in 2019 (pre-COVID-19) was $7,800. This demonstrates notable improvements in both frequency and severity. The Nevada DOT pays nearly $2 million per year in claims, and the department’s SMS has been able to demonstrate savings of up to $300,000 per quarter. 4.2.5 Policies and Procedures The Nevada DOT has written safety policy and procedures subdivided according to items such as machinery, commercial driving, backing procedures, and the like. These documents are the central guides for safety at the Nevada DOT. Further, the department has crash and inci- dent policies laying out roles and responsibilities for reporting and investigation so that data is collected, reviewed, and archived to find ways to improve safety within the Nevada DOT. The Nevada DOT’s safety program starts with a new-hire 4-hour orientation course and extends throughout the Nevada DOT, including training for their construction inspectors, and con- struction and maintenance staff, including reviewing the SMSs and safety programs of their construction contractors. The programs and policies are also adaptable, as was evident with the COVID-19 pandemic. A directive from leadership led them to review areas to determine needed barriers and markings to promote social distancing. 4.2.6 Costs of SMS The Nevada DOT is not only safety-focused but is also fiscally conservative. They rely upon their customer-focused IT department that not only developed their SMS but continues to tailor the system to meet the needs and desires of the safety group. While their IT department’s time, as well as the time for collaboration with the safety group, comes with an expense, the Nevada DOT believes they have a product customized to their needs and fitting with their existing systems, and with support for continued improvement and adaptation through their in-house- produced SMS. When evaluating the cost of a vendor-provided system, along with the more difficult-to-quantify costs of continued support, maintenance, and changes, often results in a figure that could be met with resistance. When evaluating costs, the Nevada DOT has often looked to innovative ways to find cost-effective solutions in-house, such as their approach to the SMS and having internal staff certified in inspection and training. 4.2.7 SMS Implementation Suggestions and Lessons Learned The Nevada DOT SMS has reduced the cost of workers’ compensation, reduced crashes and expenses for repairs, and increased the accountability of supervisors, drivers, and workers to operate within the policies and procedures in place. These improvements have been driven by the commitment of the Nevada DOT leadership and the central-office safety group. The Nevada DOT has found other areas for savings in partnering with other government agencies. For instance, by working with local fire, police, and rescue departments, they can avoid the more costly response of third-party providers by having coordinated with the local agencies prepared to respond to the needs of the Nevada DOT. This aligns with their other creative approaches, from building in-house expertise and certifications to conducting in-house training

40 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety for topics that some state DOTs may seek third parties to provide. Keeping training in-house offers benefits above cost as well, in that no one understands the Nevada DOT better than an employee of the Nevada DOT. An important aspect of a successful safety program is leadership commitment and holding all staff accountable. Accountability is central to the OSHA model and must be fostered by a safety commitment and culture. Changes to the program will not immediately impact the safety culture; those attempting to change the safety culture need to be prepared for persistence and slow improvements in culture. These changes require a “walk-the-walk” approach because talking about safety is not effective without acting safely. While employees of the Nevada DOT can report safety concerns directly to the state OSHA office, they are asked to report them first to the Nevada DOT office for an opportunity for them to be resolved. As mentioned, the Nevada DOT safety program is extensive and promotes a culture of safety. This does not happen quickly. The central-office safety group strives to be proactive and vocal in pinpointing issues and collaborating to produce safe resolutions. The Nevada DOT has been fortunate to have a series of directors who support safety and safety culture. The Nevada DOT recently created a Safety Strategic Plan committee that will help to continue the evolution and continuous improvement of their program. 4.3 Tennessee Established in 1915, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (Tennessee DOT) is a multimodal agency with responsibilities in aviation, public transit, waterways, railroads, and cycling and walking. With over 4,000 employees, the agency serves a state that was ranked as “having one of the top five highway systems in the country by a national trade magazine” (Tennessee DOT 2021). Responsible for managing a transportation system in four regions, 12 districts, and 95 counties, the agency implemented a $10 million budget in 2020. Similar to all DOTs across the country, employees of the Tennessee DOT perform construction and maintenance tasks with high-risk exposure that make safety a concern and a focus point for the agency. 4.3.1 Decision-Making Process The road to adopting an SMS for the Tennessee DOT was not free of struggles and motivators. Prior to 2016, one individual was in charge of safety in the Tennessee DOT, and each region rolled safety up under facility management. That individual was a safety coordinator who reported to a manager who oversaw facilities, environmental programs, and various other duties in the regions. The safety coordinator spent most of their time performing administrative duties such as conducting drug testing, managing claims, and scheduling law enforcement for work zones. The Tennessee DOT has approximately 4,000 employees, and the SMS was not as successful as desired. In 2016, the agency recorded three fatalities, a record that triggered significant efforts to improve safety. The incident motivated the leadership to lead an effort that ensures that such tragic loss does not happen again. As a result, the agency started to move toward establishing a safety culture and a sustainable solution to managing safety. Part of the initial efforts that led to the safety system used today was forming a team of a safety director and assistant director supported by individual managers to oversee the development of written programs and safety data collection and analysis, to develop a comprehensive safety training program, and to provide technical support to field staff with respect to safety. In 2017, the team began to communicate with other DOTs and met with field crews in every county in an effort to obtain their input, such as concerns, needs, views, and what they would like to see in a safety program. This move

Case Examples 41   helped the agency to gain employee “buy-in” from the beginning. In addition, the team began to examine and analyze safety records and identify the data trends to point out the areas of improvement that need special attention and focus. These areas were also matched with the crews’ input about the crews’ needs and what resources were lacking. To support the efforts, the agency added staff, including a regional safety manager and two coordinators in each region. In addition, the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Division was built at headquarters at the same time. All of these efforts led to a road map that identifies the needs and missing items, such as written programs and policies. This road map eventually led to the current SMS used by the Tennessee DOT. 4.3.2 Organizational Structure The Tennessee DOT has four regions, with a regional safety office in each region. As mentioned previously, each regional safety office is staffed with a safety manager and two safety coordinators. The current organizational structure of the Tennessee DOT OHS Division starts from safety coordinators who report to the regional safety manager. Regional safety managers report up through the assistant chief engineer at each region, but they do not report directly to the headquarter safety divisions. The OHS group in each region reports to the director of the OHS Division, who reports directly to the assistant chief engineer for operations. In addition, the director of OHS Division is supported by a safety staff reporting directly to him or her, including an assistant director, a state safety engineer, a state safety manager, a state training manager, two supervisors, and two coordinators. The leadership in this organizational structure is directly involved in safety-related efforts. In addition, to ensure that the crews’ input is included in the system, the director and assistant director established a safety council that has a representative from field operations of every district. This council ensures that crews’ participation and voices in the programs are included and help leadership to gain employee commitment to the system. 4.3.3 SMS Deployment and Management As indicated in the survey results, the SMS used by the Tennessee DOT is developed in-house. The deployment of the system began gradually with paper property damage and injury reports, as well as some workers’ compensation data provided by a third-party administrator. The Tennessee DOT Human Resources Division helped in the process by developing a return-to- work program for workers. By 2018, the agency was able to use a Microsoft SharePoint platform to automate the reporting process, a step that improved system efficiency with respect to data analysis and trends identification. The established reporting process started by using SharePoint to report property damage, injuries, and workers’ compensation. The reported data from each region is collected and a report is produced on a monthly basis. To share information with crews in every county, the SMS uses the SharePoint platform to share files, reports, guidance docu- ments, training materials, and written programs that have been established and implemented. To ensure the successful implementation and maintenance of the Tennessee DOT’s SMS, a full- time data analyst was assigned to oversee the collection, analysis, and reporting of employee injury and accident data. 4.3.4 SMS’s Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Mechanisms Used One of the notable features of the Tennessee DOT SMS revolves around communication. The SMS uses Tableau software, a dashboard reporting tool that communicates the visual story of the data and helps in trends analysis. Tableau is used to communicate safety information with executives, regional managers, and other departments of the Tennessee DOT. On a field level,

42 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety the agency uses the SharePoint platform to communicate safety information with the employees in every county. For example, training materials are communicated with the crews through the platform. Another example of communicating safety information is what the Tennessee DOT calls “Safety Mondays,” where the agency communicates any guidance and training informa- tion to the crews through a video that is displayed on a screen in every county shop. The Safety Mondays videos are weekly videos similar to TED Talks that are assigned to staff through its Learning Management System. The Tennessee DOT safety professionals found this practice to be effective in communicating new safety information because it ensures that every one of their crews has access to the intended content. Through Safety Mondays videos, safety professionals can talk about anything from a new blood-borne pathogen to lessons learned from a recent serious injury and communicate such information to crews in 95 county maintenance shops or construction offices. The move from a paper-based reporting process to an electronic system has helped the agency to realize several benefits. In addition to improved communication, the agency became more efficient in managing and analyzing safety records and trends as well as planning and implementing corrective actions. The SMS also helped the agency to prioritize programs and allocate resources based on urgency and priorities. With the electronic SMS, the data analysis helped the safety staff to identify where the agency had property damage problems. As far as the direct benefits realized from the SMS, the agency estimated that workers’ compensation and property-damage cost savings were around $1 million in early 2019. Such cost savings were correlated with the decline of severity of injuries, which led to a dramatic drop in workers’ compensation costs. 4.3.5 Policies and Procedures Although the department of human resources in the Tennessee DOT has a regulatory compliance program and safety policies with boilerplate language regarding incidents and injury reporting, there is no policy dedicated to the SMS. The OHS Division has begun draft- ing a policy but has not yet finalized its adoption. As the SMS was formalized gradually, some aspects of the related policies were established and developed at different times and in different groups within the department but has not been integrated in one location or policy tailored to the SMS. 4.3.6 Costs of SMS Since the SMS was developed entirely in-house by using existing tools such as SharePoint and Tableau, the only cost associated with the SMS as of now is the staff compensation. The Tennessee DOT developed this system internally to minimize the direct cost, and since the system is paying off through cost savings in property damage and workers’ compensation, the agency considers the system to be self-sustaining. Realizing the benefits of using the system, such as the drop in severity of injuries, helped the agency to see the return on investment from the SMS and the cost associated with its development and maintenance. 4.3.7 SMS Implementation Suggestions and Lessons Learned The Tennessee DOT shared several lessons and suggestions. One of the important lessons learned was the importance of the safety culture component in the system. The drop in severity of injuries and workers compensation witnessed during the first few years are thought to be attributed to the Tennessee DOT investment in safety culture. In 2018, the Tennessee DOT launched an internal campaign called “Work 4 Us” that delivered safety training and proper

Case Examples 43   PPE to the crews. “Work 4 Us” included an important message about safety culture that the agency wanted to deliver by words and actions. Some of these actions were part of the second part of the campaign, which entailed giving the crews the option to identify their needs and select the proper PPE, such as safety boots and gloves. For example, after identifying a trend of injuries and realizing that the current gloves used were ineffective, the Tennessee DOT piloted a new hand-protection program that offered different gloves for different uses and sought employee feedback on them. Such actions highlighted the importance of safety and communicated that leadership cared about employee safety. Another aspect that helped leadership to gain crew commitment and “buy-in” to the safety program was the direct communication of safety leader- ship with the field crews and the willingness to seek crew input and feedback, making them an integrated part of the safety system. Such actions by the safety leadership highlighted an important message that crew contribution is an integral part of safety and their voices are heard. It also helped to build trust between leadership, management, and employees and in engaging everyone in the program. 4.4 Texas The Texas Department of Transportation (the Texas DOT) was established in 1917 as the Texas Highway Department and became the Texas DOT in 1991. The Texas DOT is responsible for 80,000 miles of roadway and 36,000 state-system bridges (Texas DOT 2019). The Texas DOT’s $14 billion (2020 budgetary figure) operating budget serves these facilities along with supporting aviation, rail, and public transportation across the state. The Texas DOT is driven by 12,000 employees working to provide a safe and reliable transportation system for Texas (Texas DOT 2021). 4.4.1 Decision-Making Process As a self-insured state for workers’ compensation and vehicle accident claims, the Texas DOT developed a broad range of needs for organizing, tracking, and reporting safety data as it evolved into one of the leading DOTs in occupation safety culture and programs. Before its emphasis on occupational safety, the role of the safety division was largely in providing insurance services, meaning it had only a basic need for a system to manage its claims. The Texas DOT had an in-house system to manage claims, track costs, develop budgets, and so forth in the 1990s. This system evolved into a Microsoft Access database system that held data and tracked claims. This collected data was useful for review in a basic manner. The Texas DOT’s safety focus grew from the 1990s and was taken to a new level in 2011 with the Safety Mission Zero approach. Agency and district-level leadership was committed to this vision of having no Texas DOT employee fatalities and furthering the existing safety culture of the Texas DOT. As the Texas DOT became more data-driven in safety programs, there was improvement. Difficulty came when improvements began to slow down. As the Texas DOT advanced and emphasis on occupational safety grew, a more robust tracking system was needed to visualize trends and more specific details about safety information, not simply manage money. The Texas DOT needed to identify the barriers and challenges to break through their safety floor. For the next step, the Texas DOT wanted a web-based system that integrated and pulled data from other parts of the agency. This new approach and system began in 2015 and was deployed in 2016. The Texas DOT developed a specification for what it needed the system to do and advertised for bids, with several entities submitting proposals. The Texas DOT continues to work with the commercial product selected to modify the platform and fine-tune elements to fit with the Texas DOT operations. DOTs and their hazards are unique across many industries, so changes have been needed within the platform to meet the needs of the Texas DOT’s operations.

44 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety 4.4.2 Organizational Structure The Texas DOT’s Occupational Safety Division not only manages safety and employee safety programs, but also houses their claims systems. The Texas DOT is self-insured for workers’ compensation and auto-accident liability claims, and the Occupational Safety Division manages these claims as well as tort claims. Where many state DOTs have third parties provide services for these claims services, the Texas DOT manages these in-house using their system. Organizationally, prior to Safety Mission Zero in 2011, the Occupational Safety Division was subordinate to the Texas DOT chief administration officer. With Safety Mission Zero, leadership felt safety needed to report directly to the Texas DOT deputy executive director. Their intent was to emphasize the importance of safety in having the direct report to a high executive level. The Texas DOT wanted to show their commitment to safety and set an emphasized tone by having safety close to executive leadership. Even with this change, the safety division still works closely with operations, engineering, and the like, having strategy discussions to look at trends and to find ways to mitigate and manage risk. These boots-on-the-ground groups are those conducting the more danger-prone work, and this relationship has been productive to address trends seen at the statewide level. Overall, the Texas DOT has 25 districts, each district led by a district engineer. Regarding safety, each district has at least one safety professional, and most have two or more. Urban or metro districts may have three to five safety professionals since those districts may have between 500 and 800 employees. Within the districts, the safety officers conduct field assessments looking at work-zone traffic control and safety, in addition to worker-related safety. The safety officers report directly to the district engineers. The central office Occupational Safety Division supports the districts and has safety profes- sionals assigned to regions and will make field visits quarterly to do their own assessments and reporting. These safety professionals conduct spot checks, provide assessment reports, and look at trends from the SMS to target and help improve the trends. When the central office is fully staffed, they have four field representatives who conduct the field visits and another four safety professionals who manage the programs, policies, procedures, training, incident reviews, coding of the incidents, and workings of their system. 4.4.3 SMS Deployment and Management As mentioned, the Texas DOT used a quality-based selection process in procuring their SMS and was the first DOT to use this provider; as such, it has had to work with the provider to customize the platform to fit DOTs, and Texas DOT processes specifically. The Texas DOT is still working with the commercial solution provider to build out additional features. One benefit provided by the system is that when a new module is developed at the request of one DOT, it is then provided or offered to all. With other DOTs, such as the Iowa DOT, being onboarded to the system, risk management tools are constantly updated. This provides learning opportunities and opportunities to adapt and improve through using the new features. 4.4.4 SMS’s Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Mechanisms Used The vendor has provided the Texas DOT some nice features through their claims’ module and employee safety and health module. The system captures injury and incident reports and is web-based so employees can access it through the Texas DOT’s intranet to complete those reports. The system is integrated with the Texas DOT’s personnel database and will prepopulate report forms with personnel information, such as a person’s supervisor and the like. This saves

Case Examples 45   time and reduces input errors. The system also captures vehicle incident reports. With the setup workflows within the system, as the incidents are reported, supervisors and district safety profes- sionals are automatically notified. In the event of a vehicle or equipment incident, maintenance shops would be notified as well. This creates a quick and efficient system and provides situational awareness, putting management on notice of the incident or injuries so planning can begin for employee or equipment downtime and needs. The system will also report the incident to the central office, where a claims adjuster will begin to review the report and make decisions about whether the incident is compensatory using workers’ compensation guidance, if there is a need for the tort liability adjusters to work with third-party insurers, or if payments or collections are needed. This is a function of serving as the insurance for the Texas DOT. The central office will also review the incident to determine if it is a recordable personnel incident, or a recordable vehicle incident based on the ANSI stan- dard. The incident is also preliminarily determined for preventability. Once these decisions are coded, the incident is placed in a queue that will launch an incident analysis investigation at the district level. In this investigation, a root-cause analysis and incident review are completed along with any other required reviews, reporting, and checklists. The district review is performed by an assembled Local Safety Review Team (LSRT) that conducts the previously described review and is the final determination of the incident’s preventability. Predefined workflows then progress through the review for the LSRT’s signature, the involved supervisor, district engineer, and, finally, the occupational safety director. The incident report then receives a final review for the root cause and preventability before the case is closed. The workflows for incident reporting were developed working closely with the vendor. Cybersecurity was a big concern, so this also entailed working closely with the Texas DOT IT staff. There was a need to ensure firewalls, emails, and other controls were all appropriately set and secure, so emails were sent and received by the correct personnel. This was managed through the careful creation and continued adjustment of roles within the system to ensure personal identifying information and other confidential information was protected. With an integration of the system and Tableau, the creation of an agency dashboard plat- form has been seamless. Data can be exported from the system and into Tableau for viewing and reporting. The Texas DOT uses this feature to track and report many more metrics than most DOTs, including the OSHA total recordable incident rate (TRIR); first-aid incidents; lost-time injury rate; days-away, restricted, or transferred (DART); and vehicle accident rates. The Texas DOT actually reports TRIR and first-aid cases together because being self-insured means both situations incur an expense to the Texas DOT. Many SMSs are created to track lagging indicators, but the Texas DOT is now looking to review the leading indicators. It has been working with the vendor on an approach to automate the Texas DOT’s leading indicator tracking, which is currently occurring on paper. The Texas DOT anticipates integrating information on training, risk assessments, JSAs, near misses, close calls, good catches, and the like. The objective is to get this leading indicator information into the same system as their incident reporting to provide opportunities to review trends and the effectiveness of programs. The Texas DOT sees anecdotal evidence of 100% training and self- assessments leading to reduced incident rates, but they want to see these metrics and effects through data analysis. 4.4.5 Policies and Procedures The Texas DOT’s policies and procedures manual integrates the use and features of the platform and is primarily focused on reporting. The Texas DOT requires all reporting of incidents be completed through the system within set time frames. For instance, the LSRT has

46 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety 12 days to complete their review. The manuals also provide guidance on system use and reporting. The Texas DOT is still working with the vendor regarding training and other tracking modules, so policies for these are not yet developed, and is also working through the details and data security needs of integrating its personnel system and the SMS. 4.4.6 Costs of SMS The costs of an SMS are definitely a significant investment. For implementing the system, the Texas DOT incurred not only a startup cost but also ongoing service fees. These fees are flexible, taking into consideration the amount of programming time necessary for reports, workflows, or other modifications. As modules are selected to be added to the platform, there are additional costs incurred for them. The Texas DOT noted an estimated cost of $30,000 for module additions. If a DOT is considering an SMS, the Texas DOT suggests that it should consider the amount of use the system will entail and what work it will provide. For the Texas DOT, the SMS not only provides data and reporting, but it also uses it to manage its claims. Claims management is a valuable role of the system, and an added bonus comes with the ability to review trends, reports, and indicators. An organized approach to data management is needed if trend review is an objective. 4.4.7 SMS Implementation Suggestions and Lessons Learned The Texas DOT’s approach is to determine needs and objectives upfront and then procure a system that will provide those features through a best-quality procurement. When reviewing products, the Texas DOT contacts customers, who ask questions to learn about the system. An SMS is a significant investment and needs to be handled carefully, so the decision to provide the best value to meet the needs and objectives was carefully considered. These needs and objectives could be prioritized and systems that might provide a stepwise approach considered. The Texas DOT began by focusing on the claims management module but knew they would expand into safety and risk analysis. The various SMS platforms are geared toward different elements such as dashboards, claims management, and the like. The Texas DOT realized that taking on an SMS is a long-term invest- ment, and a system that provides the most value to current and future needs would be ideal. The Texas DOT sought to investigate what the vendors have to offer and ensured the features complement needs and sought an alignment. For instance, if the Texas DOT did not need a system to help report claims, perhaps focus could be paid on the systems that highlight leading indicators. One benefit of vendor-provided systems has been that they might have features or approaches to reviewing data that could provide unexpected value or benefits. An SMS with the ability to add modules is also helpful in future safety reporting and review needs as a DOT advances and grows. Many of the SMS providers continue to advance as well. When the Texas DOT started with their system, the Employee Safety and Health module was not as robust as it is today. As the Texas DOT has seen their vendor solution advance, they see more that they can do with the system. The Texas DOT has a good relationship with the vendor and feels it has been mutually beneficial. Because the vendor has a DOT partner, future DOT implementations will be smoother. The Texas DOT historically has averaged one employee fatality per year, yet today, it is approaching 3 years without an employee fatality. Its approach has been to begin a positive trend. There was a time when the Texas DOT was seeing seven employee fatalities per year.

Case Examples 47   By considering what an acceptable number would be, the Safety Mission Zero was born. The process has not been easy, but the success is real. Even with the organization-wide support for safety, funding sometimes can be hard to find. An SMS helps present the value and continue the mission. 4.5 Virginia The Virginia Department of Transportation (the Virginia DOT) was originally established in 1906 as the first State Highway Commission. With a 2020 fiscal year budget of $7.0 billion, the Virginia DOT operates the third-largest state-maintained roadway system of 57,867 miles. This program is managed through nine districts and approximately 7,500 employees (Virginia DOT 2021). 4.5.1 Decision-Making Process In 2015, there was a significant movement in safety management at the Virginia DOT. Prior to this time, records and reports were created on paper and then transitioned to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, where they were seldom reviewed or analyzed. The leadership within the safety division wanted to move toward a data-driven safety program to find trends and top causes. This set into motion several changes. 4.5.2 Organizational Structure Prior to 2015, the Virginia DOT safety managers were organizationally located within the central office and served the districts. A 2015 reorganization moved personnel from the central office to the districts as district safety managers reporting directly to the district engineers. The central office safety division was originally under the Virginia DOT Chief Engineer (a nonpolitical appointee). As a kickoff to the significant safety changes mentioned, a recommendation was to move the safety division to report directly to the commissioner. The recommendation was accepted, and the Division of Safety, Security, and Emergency Management was moved directly under the commissioner. This short chain of command provides autonomy and influence on the safety division within the Virginia DOT. While having autonomy, the safety division must still consider and consult stakeholders prior to installing new guidance, policies, procedures, and the like. The direct report to the commissioner also comes with dotted organizational lines to the chief engineer and chief for maintenance and operations (executive leadership). The Virginia DOT has an excellent commitment to safety from the executive leadership team. While this commitment has not always been there, once it was developed it has been able to sustain leader- ship transitions. The leadership now views safety as a key value to the Virginia DOT. An example was a recent transition to KASK helmets instead of hard hats. The KASK helmet is considered more appropriate to the work performed by the Virginia DOT. The safety division conducted a study and made the recommendation, and the Virginia DOT purchased 6,000 KASK helmets using commissioner-provided funding. The development of the strong safety culture was largely attributable to their SMS. Providing the information and numbers to support the safety initiatives and point to areas for savings helped achieve buy-in, especially at the leadership level. If you build a strong safety program and culture, transitioning management teams will have less of an effect. However, in the beginning, to achieve that culture, you need a leadership commitment to safety. In regard to safety, the Virginia DOT Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Division has an assistant director, two area safety coordinators (who divide the nine districts of the

48 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety Virginia DOT), a statewide safety manager (who conducts field visits for training, equipment inspection, and district support), a business analyst (who prepares system reports and applica- tions), and a policy analyst (who reviews injury and illness reporting for proper coding and conducts policy directive reviews). These five employees drive policy, guidance, and oversight for the 7,700 employees of the Virginia DOT across their nine districts. Within the districts, there is at least one, but usually two, safety officers. Having two officers is a recent change, but the Virginia DOT is seeing the value in having two officers per district when there are peaks in incidents or when trying to institute programs. The districts are also supporting this, which is further evidence of the Virginia DOT’s strong and growing safety culture. Additional staff support for safety functions comes from the human resources division, which has one and one-half positions dedicated to occupational health. These positions are responsible for commercial-driver licensing requirements, coordinating drug and alcohol testing, and managing medical evaluations (for exposures to silica, asbestos, lead, and the like). This group also has access to a third-party physician group for physicals and the actual drug and alcohol testing. The Virginia DOT also has one industrial hygienist for the state, and additional contracts if this employee needs assistance to supplement monitoring or evaluations. The safety program is supported by a robust training group within human resources. This central office group provides some training; however, each district also has a district learning manager to coordinate training needs. Overall, it is a collaborative organizational operation, involving multiple divisions and a central office working to support the districts. 4.5.3 SMS Deployment and Management The Virginia DOT’s SMS is a broad collaboration of systems, as will be described in the following section. The information is collected largely through the use of Microsoft InfoPath forms with automated workflows managed within a Microsoft SharePoint platform. The district safety manager reviews the incoming information for quality issues and will request clarifi- cations if needed. The workflow then moves the information forward to additional review to ensure and improve quality with the central-office safety division also involved. This multi- tiered review starts within the district and is finalized with the assistant director within the central-office safety division. 4.5.4 SMS’s Features, Functionality, Benefits, and Mechanisms Used The Virginia DOT is a large organization of 7,800 employees with a robust IT department within the agency. This is where the safety division began before the program revisions in 2015. First, the Virginia DOT developed a 24-hour toll-free phone number to provide a central injury- reporting customer service line. This approach made it simple for supervisors and work unit leaders to begin necessary paperwork and also make initial notifications to the district safety manager and human resources. Then, through the use of Microsoft InfoPath electronic forms for injury reporting, a database for injuries and illnesses was created and hosted using a Microsoft SharePoint system. The Virginia DOT is a self-insured agency that uses a third-party provider for administering its workers’ compensation program. By linking its SharePoint system with the third party’s interface, the Virginia DOT created an automatic paperless process for injuries and illness. This data is managed by the human resources division, while safety data is managed by the safety division.

Case Examples 49   Begun in 2015 and launched in 2017, the Virginia DOT created InfoPath forms for vehicular or equipment crashes or incidents. The definitions determining incidents or crashes are based on its internal definitions and not law enforcement. These forms and processes are currently being migrated from a local SharePoint system to a SharePoint online system, along with revisions to the forms for crash and incident reporting. This migration will be followed by the migration of the previously mentioned injury and illness form. The crash and incident process is also automated. All field personnel can input crash or incident data using an email address to log in and complete the paperwork. The SharePoint system is connected to additional internal systems to help prepopulate forms with known details. For example, entering a vehicle identi- fication number will query a vehicle database and fill in additional details for that vehicle. This also occurs for the employees based on their employee identification number, which can link to the call-in information of an incident, an employee’s supervisor, and more. Within the form, district safety managers can rule an incident as preventable or nonpreventable and can provide reasoning or recommend corrective action. The employee completing the form can also provide their assessment of why the incident was preventable or nonpreventable. Once complete, the form is processed to a statewide safety committee that rules on the preventable nature of the incident, and then a safety director closes out the form with a final determina- tion and issues corrective or disciplinary actions needed to the district. This SharePoint module also allows for collecting witness statements, police reports, pictures, investigation reports, and anything associated with the incident investigation. Another module of the system is for occupational health, which is also controlled by human resources but is accessible by the safety division. The Virginia DOT’s human resources division has an industrial hygienist who reviews the information collected by this module, which includes data on exposures to silica and lead, tracking of required physicals for employees, and drug and alcohol screenings. This sensitive data, which is also entered through InfoPath forms, is in a SharePoint system with strict permission controls. However, a Virginia DOT employee with appropriate permissions can see information in this system and other systems described here. Safety managers in the central office, for example, would be able to review injuries, prior physical dates, and the like. Another SharePoint module controlled by human resources is for civility training and pro- grams in the workplace. This module includes data related to workplace violence and civil rights. This system ties together information and incidents needing review by a Virginia DOT threat assessment team. This team meets as necessary, and findings in the cases progress based on the civil rights categorization of the incident. The Virginia DOT also has a learning management system for training called the Virginia DOT University. This system is a vendor-provided system using Cornerstone. The Virginia DOT is able to build its own training and upload these trainings to the Virginia DOT University. Other courses are collected or purchased from AASHTO or Skillsoft. The Virginia DOT is currently working on training plans to assemble classes into modules for certifications for operating specific equipment or performing certain operations. It is able to use the system to identify training needs based on tasks. For employees without computer access in the field, the Virginia DOT has provided electronic bulletin boards. These bulletin boards are smart, touchscreen televisions with preloaded training presentations, videos, and other content pushed out by the Virginia DOT IT division. A couple of system elements linked to the safety division are controlled by the Virginia DOT maintenance division. One is the Integrated Solutions program, which is for purchases of PPE, chemicals, oil, and the like. This is also a SharePoint and InfoPath system. Purchases must meet specific criteria or be previously approved within a catalog. Reviews and approvals are handled electronically by the safety division, which has access to this system. One system not currently

50 Use of Safety Management Systems in Managing Highway Maintenance Worker Safety linked to the safety system is the Virginia DOT’s Highway Maintenance Management System, which manages work orders. The safety division is working toward creating this link so training, work orders, and injuries could be reviewable for analysis. The safety division is also working on a geographic information system through Esri ArcGIS for near-miss reporting and data collection. The Virginia DOT’s SMS is a large aggregation of modules and subsystems mainly using Microsoft SharePoint. The development and linking of these modules into a system has been a vast collaboration across various divisions. These components were developed in-house and not within a singular-purchased system, which can make reporting more difficult. In 2019, the safety division hired a business analyst with proficiencies in Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Apps, and SharePoint Online. This allowed for the creation of additional tools and reporting. The Virginia DOT is able to use its SMS and data collected to produce monthly safety reports and snapshot safety analytics, and review injury rates, among other metrics, broken down by district level or other criteria. The Virginia DOT performs quarterly analyses to review trends (improving or worsening) and are working to develop an overall safety score. All of this reporting is automated. As facility inspections, near-miss reporting, or other data is entered (all paperless data collection), the output is at the fingertips of the end user. 4.5.5 Policies and Procedures The policies and procedures regarding the Virginia DOT’s SMS are not overly detailed, with the exception of covering information security. In regard to personal identifiable informa- tion, policy and informational memorandums require data to be secure and server-protected. Permission to access such data is only granted to specific positions and according to satisfactory background checks. Data entry is less controlled; for example, anyone can start a report on the injury and illness platform, but access to review the data once personal information is pulled from systems is restricted. There is no policy instructing the use of the InfoPath forms; however, those are the only forms available, so there is no alternative. Job aids are provided to instruct how to use the forms and system, but not a description of the official procedural policy. There are policy and safety directives for the Virginia DOT OSHA compliance that are manually written and specific to Virginia DOT needs. Additionally, there is policy on reporting incidents and vehicle crashes, but these do not reference the SMS because there is no other alternative for reporting as required. 4.5.6 Costs of SMS During the development of the Virginia DOT’s SMS, cost was never questioned. However, because the SMS was developed in-house using existing systems and software, costs were largely in personnel time. There are costs regarding software for licenses (ArcGIS Survey123, Power BI, and the like); however, these systems were already acquired for other reasons. Hardware costs for tablets or mobile devices for data entry also exist, but these devices were also largely already available. Besides PPE, testing equipment, physicals, and other mandated requirements, most costs were for salary in developing the Virginia DOT SMS. 4.5.7 SMS Implementation Suggestions and Lessons Learned The Virginia DOT’s most important lesson learned was the realization that the first attempt may not be successful. The installation and adoption of an SMS approach is something that takes iterations. It requires collaboration with stakeholders, getting feedback, and accepting criticism. Request reviews for the considered approaches; the more reviews received, the better

Case Examples 51   to realize invaluable improvements. There is also a need to be open-minded. Additionally, someone within the organization will have to make the case for safety to achieve executive- level buy-in to realize a cultural shift. If that case can be data- and value-driven, it will provide the best response. A safety division with a close organizational relationship and chain of command to executive leadership is an indication of importance and elicits credibility from the organization. The Virginia DOT has witnessed pitfalls in its approach, but it did not allow them to be “showstoppers.” For example, cellular service in not available in rural areas of Virginia. The Virginia DOT developed contingency plans to work around these issues: find ways to work together, collaborate, and communicate to make it happen. Communication and collaboration lead to credibility and the ability to realize the improvements sought. Collaboration can also occur outside an agency. Hold to a continuous improvement mindset and look to other state DOTs for inspiration and opportunities to learn. The Virginia DOT recently collaborated with Kentucky on the design of a sign and cone rack to assist in traffic control safety. AASHTO and organizations such as NAATSHO can also be helpful communities for inspiration. The Virginia DOT is willing to collaborate and provide feedback based on its experiences.