So you’re the new safety manager?

Here’s a primer for setting up a safety program at your park

By Allen F. Weitzel

It’s a dream come true. You find yourself sitting in a small office with your name and the title "safety manager" on the door. You know you wanted the job, but now that you have it, what do you do with it?

When your boss told you the news, he thanked you for being a team player, and explained that corporate thinks you’ll catch on quick. When you asked what you should do first, he said, with a wave of the hand, "Just call another park and find out how they do it!"

You’re alone. You feel empty. The office phone rings to wake you from your catatonic state. It’s the maintenance director. "So, you got the safety job, huh? Congratulations!" You wonder, "How did he find out so fast?" The director says, "What’s this I hear about some new revised OSHA Respirator regs?" You do the smart thing: you buy yourself some time. "Let me do some research and get back to you."

Now what? You need to put a program together, friend. If you’re lucky, you’ve inherited a workable program from a previous safety manager. If that’s the case you’ll need to continue those things that work and tweak the things that don’t. But with the explosion of new parks and family entertainment centers, odds are you’ll have to start from scratch.

Setting Up a Safety Program

Why do parks need a safety manager? Foremost, because safety continuity is important for park guests and employees. And from a cost stand point, liability insurance carriers and worker’s compensation carriers offer reduced premium rates to parks that have one person overseeing risk management. The driving philosophies of an efficient safety department are professionalism, cooperation and communication.

When putting together a safety program, you should first determine if your department is going to be an advisory or enforcement department. Here are some questions to help you answer this prickly question. Can you close a ride without warning, without giving a reason (at the time) and without consulting anyone? If the answer is yes, you are enforcement. Are you a one- or two-person department that researches safety data and submits that data to others to implement? Then you are an advisory department.

An enforcement department requires a significant-sized staff to plan work ahead of time, inspect work in progress, regulate safety infractions as they occur and maintain an enforcement posture. An enforcement department requires follow-up on each infraction and tracks it until its conclusion. An advisory department consults and advises on issues and lets the division vice presidents or directors make the final decisions. Be sure you, your boss, and the general manager all agree on your realm of authority. It is possible to have an advisory department with enforcement capability in only one or two programs.

Okay, step number two. Clarify and outline all the safety jobs for which your department will be responsible. Such jobs could include safety programs, safety training, managing the first aid function, insurance programs, guest claims management, employee injuries (worker’s comp), inspections from outside agencies, litigation control, security management, Americans with Disabilities Act, fire prevention and fire extinguisher management, Hazard Communication and HAZWOPER Procedures, and park (radio) communications. Knowing your responsibilities will help you determine what size staff you will need.

Request that your department report directly to the park’s general manager. If this is not possible, have, at least, a one-on-one audience with the general manager once a month on safety issues.

What about working with other departments on safety? You are now the safety conscience of the company. You must set good safety examples. Wear your hard hat in construction areas and wear your name tag when in the park. Another tip: listen. Make employees comfortable enough to chat with you about safety. Build confidence. Whatever happens, if an employee wishes to remain anonymous, you must respect that wish. In many instances, it is illegal to discipline or punish "whistle-blowers."

Coordinate with the maintenance department to assure that ride manufacturers have your park on their mailing list for updated safety bulletins; share these bulletins with the ride operations department. Share inspection results (from outside agencies) with all departments as appropriate.

Position your department so you can provide input on employee training manuals. Encourage your park to review and revise employee manuals annually. Make sure safety training materials are easy to access and simple for employees to understand. Reward safety; catch employees doing something right.

If you are lucky enough to have employees in your department, train your crew with the skills you want them to have. Each employee in your department should be responsible for one (or more) safety tasks. They should become the experts at those tasks.

Using a Wealth of References

Establish some reference sources. Your boss is right on this one. Contact the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) (www.iaapa.org). Procure a Fun Parks Directory. Plunk yourself in front of your phone and start contacting other parks. Establish a network of contacts you can call when you need information. When working with other parks, offer to share information. Promise a tour of your facility, if you can get a tour of theirs. Swap copies of training documents and written programs.

Amusement park marketing departments may compete for guests, but parks should never compete on safety. When all parks are safe, the entire industry benefits. Many parks improve their overall safety by understanding lessons learned from incidents at other parks. Most important, be sure you do not violate any confidences shared by other park personnel. If they give you inside information about an incident or share with you special procedures, honor that trust. You are of little value to your organization or compatriots if you have a reputation of burning your sources.

Join industry and safety organizations. Again, the goal is networking. Get to know people with whom you can share information and procedures. A few examples are the American Society for Testing and Materials, Technical Standards for Industry Worldwide (www.astm.org), The American Society of Safety Engineers (www.asse.org), the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials (www.naarso.com), the Amusement Industry Manufacturers & Suppliers (www.aimsintl.org) and IAAPA. DonÍt forget the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (www.osha.gov). Many of these organizations provide a variety of materials for setting up safety programs.

Where else can you get information? A good source is your general liability insurance carrier risk control staff. Every insurance company has risk control experts. Get to know these folks, and don’t be afraid to ask them questions.

An additional reference is your worker’s compensation carrier and their risk control experts. Many comp companies provide training materials and classes for your employees. Use slight caution when coordinating with your worker’s comp carrier. Some comp carriers have policies that dictate if a park fails to comply with worker’s comp company safety recommendations, their comp insurance could be revoked.

DonÍt overlook your local fire department. Build a rapport with your fire inspector. Fire departments love to educate. They may even help you with your required building evacuation plans. Your police department can help, too. Many local police departments provide training on identifying drug use, gang identification, robbery prevention techniques, counterfeit money identification and more.

For the rookie safety manager, there is no better text book than BestÍs Safety & Security Directory (http://www.ambest.com/sales/bssd.html). This directory contains the latest safety and security products and services, up-to-date OSHA standards, company profiles and training articles. Self-inspection checklists are also included. You can get the directory for free by registering with the A.M. Best Company (http://www.ambest.com), which offers comprehensive data to insurance professionals and is an authoritative source of insurance company ratings and information.

Want more information? Most states have a chamber of commerce that provides educational material on state laws and regulations. Start browsing the Internet; do some safety surfing. You have loads of Web sites at your fingertips. Buy a copy of the Writer’s Market and subscribe to all the safety magazines; soon, you’ll have more safety data coming to your mailbox than you can absorb.

Handling a Safety Incident

How do you increase safety awareness and lower both guest and employee incident rates? Most important, make sure employee witness statements and the appropriate photographs are completed promptly following any incident. Getting incident information to the park claims department (or your insurance claims administrator) quickly is one of the most effective tools to reducing guest claim incident counts.

Request that you maintain the same insurance company, claims administrator and legal counsel for as long as you can (provided they do a good job for you). Train them on your park operations, as you would any key employee. This will help them handle guest claims or defend you in court. Give annual tours to this group. Never edit the news you give them. These individuals can handle your claims better if they know exactly what happened during an incident.

At the close of each incident case, share information with department heads about the result of guest and employee injuries in their areas. Let department heads know the details of what happened and what your safety staff recommends as possible solutions to prevent further incidents. Communication and education are important. Train your park managers-on-duty personnel, department managers, security personnel and incident responders regarding the statute of limitations for case filing requirements in your state. This is important so departments do not destroy case related documents before case statutes run their course.

Consider creating a document retention program for your company. Your lawyer and accounting department can help. You can also refer to a reference document titled Federal Record Keeping Requirements and the Guide to Corporate Records Retention (Serverson & Werson). DonÍt overlook the filing ages of minors and pregnant women when establishing your purging policy on closed cases.

Once you have your department stabilized and you review all legal compliance programs, use respected sources to assess your programs to offer suggestions on updates. For example, send your fire prevention plan to the fire department for their review. Let your worker’s compensation safety expert review your respirator program.

Ask your local health department to review your sanitation guide and your insurance company to check out your emergency action plan.

After a short time, using these resources and applying yourself, you’ll be able to respond to that hard question from the maintenance director with a quick answer. "I’ve got that data for you. I looked it up on the Web and I’m e-mailing you the revised Respirator Protection Program changes right now." So you’re the new safety manager? Darn right and proud of it!

Allen F. Weitzel is a California writer who has worked in the amusement industry for more than 30 years. He has worked in or managed almost every department that can be found in the amusement business. His writing has been featured in a variety of national publications. Allen lives in San Jose with his wife, two computer-guru sons, two cats and Sparky the dog.

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