Safety Stand Down | Video

Rene Thibault | 2/14/2013

North Dakota is the second most active drilling state in the country, but also has the second highest rate of work-related fatalities in the United States. Today, the focus was on safety. There are more than nine million people employed in the oil and gas industry in the United States. With that many people working oil and energy jobs, accidents can happen.

“It`s about bringing people home safely at the end of the day from the oil patch. So we started this organization back in 2003 in southern Texas and its grown all across the country,” said Rick Ingram, the Chairman for the National STEPS (Service, Transmission, Exploration and Production Safety) Network.

The MonDak STEPS organization held seven Stand Down meetings across North Dakota today. It was a chance for oil companies to take a break and come together to discuss safety.

“We really want to have a strong safety culture out there and that takes everybody. It starts with leadership, but the new workers especially need the right training: education, tools, equipment, job planning, and communication to get home safely. And that`s what we have to do,” added Ingram.

People who attended the meetings were able to break down different accidents that have happened in this region.

“Once we do that, we can train our people on how to deal with those hazards, deal with those types of emergencies and situations. That way they have information to make good decisions in the field”, stated Dustin Austin, the Chairman for the MonDak (Montana-North Dakota) Safety Network.

In such a fast paced industry, the most important thing workers can do is be aware of the risks, and watch out for each other.

“We`re a community, we`re all in this together, and it`s going to take all of us to keep this industry safe and keep our people safe. We all work together out there whether we`re driving on the roads or whether we`re working together on sites, we`re all a family in this industry,” added Austin.

Like any industry, there`s only one message when it comes to health and safety.

“This is our message for 2013 and 2014 in our industry: Failure is not an option,” declared Ingram.

About 700 people from more than 350 different oil Companies attended the Stand Down meetings across North Dakota today.

COMMENT ON THIS STORY

BACK TO NEWS | BACK TO MINOT STORIES