WEI has developed a secured Internet based, employee injury/illness and vehicle accident statistical benchmarking program for all Western Energy Institute member utility companies. Information generated will provide participating companies with consistent, accurate statistical loss control data. It will also provide participating companies an opportunity to compare their data to that of similar companies. The networking opportunities created by this program will be an added benefit. Information compiled may be utilized internally by each participating company at their discretion and can be sorted by variety of business functions and field selections.

A secure web site has been established and will be accessible to each participating company utilizing an assigned password. Each participating company will be responsible to access the web site and input their statistical data by February 15 and August 15 each year. Data input will be instantly displayed numerically and graphically.

To establish consistency and insure accuracy the program numbers will be compiled as defined in the Record keeping Guidelines for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Manual on Classification of Motor Vehicle Traffic Accidents, ANSI D16.1.

Information input into the Benchmark Data Collection site provided will be automatically converted to rates utilizing the OSHA Lost Workday Injury (LWDI) Rate and ANSI Vehicle Accident Frequency Rate Formulas.

Only Utility Regulated (Rate Based) Direct Support Activities information will be entered and compiled. Information regarding Non-Utility, Non-Regulated activities or other support functions will not be compiled by this benchmark program.

DEFINITIONS:

Number of Employees: Average number of employees during the year.

Total Hours: The number of hours all employees actually worked. Hours worked should not include any non-work time, even though paid such as vacation, sick leave, holidays etc. For employees paid on commission, by salary hours worked may be estimated on the basis of scheduled hours or 8 hours per workday.

Recordable Occupational Injuries or Illnesses: Are any occupational injuries or illnesses which result in: A fatality, regardless of the time between the injury and death, or the length of the illness; or lost workday cases, other than fatalities, that result in lost workdays; or nonfatal cases without lost workdays which result in transfer to another job or termination of employment, or require medical treatment (other than first aid) or involve: loss of consciousness or restriction of work or motion. This category also includes any diagnosed occupational illnesses, which are reported to the employer but are not classified as fatalities or lost workday cases. OSHA defines a 25 db shift in hearing as recordable.

Medical Treatment: Treatment administered by a physician or by registered professional personnel under the standing orders of a physician. Medical treatment does not include first aid treatment even though provided by a physician or registered professional personnel.

First Aid: Any one-time treatment, and any follow up visit for the purpose of observation, of minor scratches, cuts, burns, splinters, and so forth, which do not ordinarily require medical care. Such one-time treatment, and follow up visit for the purpose of observation, is considered first aid even though provided by a physician or registered professional personnel.

Lost Workdays: Workdays (consecutive or not) on which the employee would have worked but could not because of occupational injury or illness. The number of lost workdays should not include the day of injury or onset of illness or any days on which the employee would not have worked even though able to work.

Restricted Workday Activity: Workdays (consecutive or not) on which because of injury or illness the employee was assigned to another job on a temporary basis, or the employee worked at a permanent job less than full time, or the employee worked at a permanently assigned job but could not perform all duties normally connected with it.

Reportable Vehicle Accident: Any occurrence, regardless of fault, involving a fleet motor vehicle, being operated as a motor vehicle, resulting in death or injury to any person or damage to any vehicle or property involved, unless the fleet vehicle was properly parked at the time.

APPLIED FORMULAS:

Incident and Severity Rates for Injuries and illnesses are computed from the following Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) / OSHA Formulas:

Combined Rates: Each participant’s Recordable Injuries column, Lost Workday Injuries column, and Lost Workday columns are totaled. The BLS/OSHA formulas are applied to establish the Combined Rate.

Average of Rates: Rate columns are added together and divided by the number of participant companies to establish and Average of Rates. Some industry associations utilize this formula for calculating group performance rates.

Vehicle Accident Frequency Rates are calculated utilizing the following ANSI Vehicle Accident Frequency Rate Formula:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING AND NAVIGATING THE WEI SAFETY STATISTICS BENCHMARKING WEB SITE ARE AS FOLLOWS: