Educate Employees on the Dangers of Excavation During Trench Safety Month

The National Utility Contractors Association is encouraging companies to hold safety training events

Educate Employees on the Dangers of Excavation During Trench Safety Month

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June has been declared Trench Safety Month by the National Utility Contractors Association, which includes the annual Trench Safety Stand Down, which was set for June 14-18.

For the past five years in June, NUCA has held the Trench Safety Stand Down in order for the utility construction industry to have a week focused on excavation safety and education. This year’s event will again occur at hundreds of job sites across the nation, reaching tens of thousands of workers.

TSSD Week is a series of organized events held by NUCA and industry professionals — both member and non-member organizations — to emphasize the message of safety around job site trenches and excavations. TSSD Week is used by industry safety professionals to hold safety training, educational seminars, live demonstrations of trench rescues, and other activities to reinforce the message of trench safety.

Due to the enthusiastic success of NUCA’s trench safety program and 2020’s first-ever Trench Safety Month, NUCA has once again declared June to be Trench Safety Month. The association is devoting the entire month of June to getting the message out to the public and non-NUCA industry companies about the importance of employee safety when working underground or in and around trenches.

In an effort to grow this strong message of safety, the national association will be leveraging the safety messages of TSSD through NUCA’s social media channels, internal publications, and the construction trade press to emphasize several key safety ideas.

Selecting June as Trench Safety Month is a natural tie-in to the lessons and demonstrations being completed at thousands of NUCA member job sites during TSSD Week. In 2020, more than 32,000 industry employees and first responders at over 3,500 job sites, from 328 organizations, took part in a Stand Down event.

NUCA and utility construction industry members seek out every measure possible to reduce risks on job sites, which are well known to be dangerous places to work if someone is unaware of the hazards — 21 industry employees lost their lives through trench accidents in 2019 and 2020, according to OSHA. Trench collapse deaths among construction workers unfortunately appear to be rising slightly since 2018, when there were 17 fatalities. Participation in Trench Safety Month and the TSSD are even more critical this year, as the economy begins to rapidly recover from the pandemic.

Time and time again, evidence shows that the key to significantly reducing the risks associated with this industry is employee training and reinforcement through safety education events such as NUCA’s Trench Safety Month and TSSD Week.

Use the social media hashtag #TrenchSafetyMonth.


About the National Utility Contractors Association: Founded in 1964, the National Utility Contractors Association represents nearly 1,700 U.S. utility and excavation contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers who provide the materials and workforce to build and maintain the nation’s intricate network of water, sewer, gas, telecommunications, and electric infrastructure. NUCA is found online at www.nuca.com and can be followed on Twitter at @NUCA_National.  



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