In Washington and across the country, the SHARP program is helping to bring awareness to trucking industry work injury risks, via the TIRES (Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis) initiative. SHARP (Safety & Health Assessment and Research for Prevention) is an established Washington State Department of Labor & Industries program focused on research and response to occupational safety and health issues across industries and disciplines.
With additional support from NIOSH, the TIRES program maintains a website and social media presence, provides training materials and reports, and conducts interviews and surveys with members of management and labor teams in industry.
The goal of the TIRES project is to reduce the incidence of:
- Non-traumatic musculoskeletal disorders of the neck, back and upper extremity.
- Slips, trips and falls.
- Injuries from getting struck by or against an object.
These conditions comprise 71% of the industry’s workers’ compensation claims, costs and lost workdays.
The trucking work injury prevention resources available at the TIRES website is a smorgasbord for safety professionals and industry members across the country. The Washington Department of Labor & Industries also conveniently ties together reports and publications in an encyclopedia-like layout that provides everything you need to develop safety programs, research risk areas, and gather case studies for reporting.
To stay up to date, follow @TruckSafe on Twitter or visit the TIRES blog. And as always, upgrade your trucking fall protection with a trucker ladder or flatbed work platform from Innovative Access Solutions.