Downtown Tacoma hosts conference that saves lives

No bronco bucked, no cowboy roped a skittish calf at this rodeo. No clowns jumped into barrels nor did ornery bulls paw the dirt.

This rodeo – the 14th Annual Forklift Rodeo – saw forklift drivers driving around a tight course set with orange traffic cones onto the concrete floor of the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

It was one of the highlights of the 60th Annual Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Conference, organized by the State Department of Labor & Industries.

Across Commerce Street in downtown Tacoma, workers erected a tall wood pole upon which workers would test their rescue skills.

In the exhibit hall, vendors at an industrial trade fair promoted all manner of products and services. A passerby could have his or her hearing or urine tested, or feet electronically measured for safety shoes. Vendors displayed safety goods including helmets, earplugs, ergonomically correct chairs, helmets, gas detectors, coats, hazmat suits and gloves – hundreds of styles of gloves meant to protect against cold, heat or various dangers including caustic substances.

All in the name of safety.

Conferences such as this one were mandated by presidential order soon after the end of World War II, L&I spokesman Hector Castro said Wednesday.

During the war, he said, “a lot of workers were killed. The president was alarmed at the number.”

The first industrial safety conference in Washington was held in 1949, a year that saw 300 workplace fatalities, primarily in the logging, sawmill and construction sectors.

Today, the department sees an average of 80-85 fatalities, Castro said.

So far this year: 34.

The goal of the conference, Castro said, “is to provide information that workers and safety managers can take back to their workplace.”

Among the seminars and presentations: “Confined Space Rescue,” “Distracted Driving: On and Off the Job,” “Trees Under Tension and Tree Falling,” “Excavation and Trenching” and many more.

“The cost of this is trivial when compared to the cost of workplace injuries and illnesses that can be prevented,” said Michael Silverstein of L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

In fact, the conference was held at no cost to the public purse. All funding came from attendance registration, sponsors and vendor fees. “Workers who might have been injured will not be,” Silverstein said. “We’re here to get the word out.”

It’s the word on the hazards of trenches, for instance.

“If there would be one problem that we could solve, it would be trenching fatalities,” he said. “We’ve known how to prevent trenching fatalities since 450 B.C.”

That’s around the time the Greek historian Herodotus noted that the Phonecians knew how to slope a trench.

“And we still have trenching fatalities,” Silverstein said. “That’s the one that bothers me particularly. Still we have these fatalities. I collect articles. They happen every week.”

Not necessarily in Washington.

Silverstein also said that 40 percent of lost work-time derives from strains and sprains that can include tendonitis, carpal tunnel injuries and back sprains.

“There are methods, techniques and tools that can be used to prevent them,” he said.

Meanwhile, upstairs, the rodeo continued.

Doug Graham of Covington, a forklift driver at Boeing’s Kent plant, prepared to compete.

At work he drives a Hyster 8,000-pound lift, or a Clark 30,000-pound lift, or even a mobile crane – but on Wednesday he would drive a smaller forklift and gingerly lift a pallet loaded with a basketball, and another with an easily wobbled tennis ball precariously balanced, another with a pipe, and he would place them precisely as directed by the judges and he would drive a slalom course tightly bound by orange cones.

First place would be $500.

“It’s the pride, that you’re the top dog,” said Tim Eacrett, also a Boeing driver and on Wednesday a rodeo official.

Results were not available at press time.

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535 c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com