HomeMy WebLinkAbout15-140RESOLUTION 15-140
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF ST.
LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA, AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 14-082 TO
REVISE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR THE ACCIDENT REVIEW
COMMITTEE TO ADD DEFINITION OF EMPLOYEE INJURY, AND
PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE
WHEREAS, Resolution No. 86-172 dated September 2, 1986, adopted the Loss Prevention and
Safety Manual; and
WHEREAS, Resolution No. 03-063 dated August 26, 2003 amended the Loss Prevention and
Safety Manual; and
WHEREAS, Resolution No. 14-082 dated June 17, 2014 repealed Resolution No. 03-063, adopted
the Policies and Procedures for the Accident Review Committee, and established safety requirements
throughout St. Lucie County; and
WHEREAS, it is necessary to revise the Policies and Procedures for the Accident Review
Committee to add the definition of "Employee Injury".
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of County Commissioners of St. Lucie County,
Florida:
1. The revised Policies and Procedures for the Accident Review Committee attached hereto as
Exhibit "A" are hereby adopted.
2. The Human Resources Director is hereby directed to send copies of the attached Resolution
to each County Department Director for distribution to each employee, and to the business
representative for Teamsters Local Union No. 769.
3. This resolution shall take effect on the date of adoption.
After motion and second, the vote on this resolution was as follows:
Chair Paula A. Lewis AYE
Vice Chair Kim Johnson AYE
Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky AYE
Commissioner Tod Mowery AYE
Commissioner Frannie Hutchinson ABSENT
PASSED AND DULY ADOPTED this 18TH day of August, 2015.
ATTEST: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA
BY:
/DEPUTY CLERK CHAIR
APPROV�S TO LEGAL FRM AND
CORREC SS6,, i� �
COUNTY ATiTOWNEY
Employee Safety & Risk Management
p
Policy and Procedure
Accident Review Committee
To establish an Accident Review Committee (ARC) to recommend improvements to the St. Lucie
County BOCC safety program and to identify corrective measures needed to eliminate or
reduce employee accidents and potential work hazards. The ARC shall also function as an
Accident Review Board (ARB) to determine if an Accident/Incident and/or employee injury is
chargeable or non- chargeable, and to issue a ruling on the Accident/Incident. The ARC shall
foster on-going communication and cooperation between employees and management on all
employee accidents. Employee involvement at all levels of the County is critical for the County
to be successful in accident and injury prevention. To accomplish this task, this joint
worker/management accident review committee is established to bring workers and
management together in a non -adversarial, cooperative effort to reduce employee accidents.
ll. DEFINITIONS:
ACCIDENT: Whenever a county motorized vehicle whether owned,
leased, rented, or operated and whether registered or
exempt from registration, comes into contact with, or is
alleged to have come into contact with; any person,
animal, other vehicle or other inanimate object, in a
manner which results in death, injury, property damage,
(regardless of owner and cost of damage over one
hundred ($100.00) dollars.), vandalism, or is stolen, an
accident will have occurred.
ARC — ARB: Accident Review Committee — Accident Review Board
carry the same meaning and consist of the same members.
EMPLOYEE INJURY: Any employee that sustains an injury while performing
their job functions.
NON -PREVENTABLE ACCIDENT: The County driver/operator committed no errors
and reacted reasonably to the errors of others and
observed county policies, procedures, and training,
including defensive driving procedures.
PREVENTABLE ACCIDENT: Any collision involving a vehicle that results in property
damage and/or personal injury, regardless of who was
injured, what property was damaged, to what extent, or
where it occurred, in which a County driver/operator
failed to do everything that reasonably could have been
done to avoid the accident.
For purposes of Discipline, the terms Preventable and
Chargeable carry the same meaning and are to be used
interchangeably.
VEHICLE: Any car, truck, tractor, trailer, forklift, or other powered
equipment that is owned, leased or operated by St. Lucie
County.
THE DEFINITION OF A DEFENSIVE DRIVER IS ONE WHO:
1, Commits NO operational errors.
2. Makes due allowance for lack of skill or improper driving practices of
others.
3. Adjusts operation to compensate for unusual weather, road and traffic
conditions.
4. Does not have a collision due to unsafe actions of pedestrians or other
drivers.
5. Is alert to collision inducing situations.
6. Recognizes the need for preventative action in advance.
7. Takes necessary action to prevent a collision.
III. ACCIDENT REVIEW COMMITTEE (ARC) RESPONSIBILITIES:
A. The purpose of the ARC is to address employee accidents and injuries that affect
both department and County -wide operations.
B. The committee is responsible for making recommendations on how to reduce
employee accidents in the workplace. The ARC membership is charged with the
following responsibilities: a) to define problems, b) remove obstacles to accident
prevention c) identify hazards, d) recommend corrective actions, e) identify
training for employees, f) accident avoidance.
C. The ARC shall meet as the County Accident Review Board (ARB) to determine if
the Accident/Incident is chargeable or non -chargeable and to issue a ruling on
the Accident/Incident.
D. COMMITTEE FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES:
1. The primary duty is to function as an "Accident Review Committee".
2. The secondary duty is to function as an "Accident Review Board".
IV. ACCIDENT REVIEW COMMITTEE (ARC) MEMBERSHIP:
A. The actual size and composition of the ARC shall be determined by the County
Administrator or designee. There shall be an odd number of ARC members and
membership shall generally consist of the following:
1. Three (3) bargaining unit employees from different departments;
2. Three (3) management representatives from different departments;
3. Three (3) "at large" representatives from different departments.
4. ARC Members should have an interest in reducing employee accidents
throughout the County's workforce.
5. The County Administrator or designee shall appoint ARC members upon
the recommendation of Department Directors, the bargaining unit, or
selected from volunteers. The terms of ARC members will be staggered
in order to provide continuity to the ARC. The term for each member can
be up to four consecutive years but may be extended by the County
Administrator or designee.
6. The vote of each individual member will be given the same weight as that
of any other member of the ARC.
7. The County Administrator or designee will appoint one member of the
ARC to be chairperson of the ARC who shall generally conduct meetings
in accordance with BOCC advisory board procedures.
8. The HR Representative shall act as ARC secretary and shall keep and
maintain minutes of each meeting and send out notices to ARC members.
9. The Employee Safety/Risk manager will be present to provide the ARC
with the investigative findings and answer any questions of the ARC.
10. Each member's Department Director shall designate another employee of
similar position to act as an alternate member. The Union shall designate
alternate members for its representation.
a. Whenever the Appointed Member cannot attend an ARC meeting,
the Alternate shall attend and act in their stead.
B. ACCIDENT REVIEW COMMITTEE RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. The ARC shall have the following responsibilities:
a. Assist management in reducing employee accidents and injuries
at their facilities.
b. At the first meeting of each calendar year, elect a chairperson and
vice -chairperson.
C. Hold meetings as described and when required.
d. Review and make recommendations to update safety procedures
based on accident or near miss investigation findings.
e. With the Risk/Safety Management division, review, develop and
communicate safety and emergency procedures including;
general safety, right -to -know, risk management, environmental
and personal protection and any other health and safety related
exposure that apply to the member's department.
f. Report unsafe conditions or practices and accept suggestions for
ARC review.
g. Assist with the Safety program by evaluating injury and accident
records, identifying trends and patterns, and formulating
corrective measures.
h. Promote safety and health awareness and participation through
continuous improvements to the Safety program and the County
employee's health fair.
i. Participate in safety training and monitoring safety training to
ensure that it is in place, that it is effective, and that it is
documented.
C. COMMITTEE MEETINGS:
1. ARC meetings shall be held monthly as necessary. A quorum (Simple
majority of members) must be present before any matter under
consideration by the Board may be voted upon.
2. All ARC records will be maintained as required by Florida Law.
D. COMMITTEE TRAINING:
1. Accident Review Committee members may be trained in:
a. Duties and responsibilities of the Committee and the individual
members.
b. How to conduct Accident Investigations or safety surveys and
recognize hazards.
C. How to determine preventability pf accidents and injuries.
E. DECISIONS AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE ARC:
1. All recommendations of the ARC will be considered by the County
Administrator or designee but are not binding on the County
Administrator.
V. ACCIDENT REVIEW COMMITTEE (ARC) ACCIDENT REVIEW BOARD (ARB) PROCEDURES:
A. INITIAL DETERMINATION OF ACCIDENT PREVENTABILITY:
The County Safety/Risk Management Division shall make the initial
preventability determination concerning County employee accidents and
operational incidents that result in injury and/or property loss/damage.
1. All loss incidents and injuries are investigated and reported following the
procedures listed in the policy titled "Reporting Vehicle, Equipment &
Property Loss Incidents."
2. Whenever possible, the Employee Safety & Risk Manager will also have
first investigated the incident, visited the scene of the accident,
interviewed the employee and available witnesses, and taken
appropriate photos of damage and the scene.
a. All such information shall be available to and used by Risk/Safety
Management and the ARC when making their determinations.
3. The ARC will discuss the Accident/Incident, may talk with those involved
and will make a determination.
4. Risk/Safety Management shall notify the employee, the employee's
Department Director, and the FIR Director in writing of the ARC's ruling
and the HR Director will make a disciplinary recommendation to their
Department Director and that Director will make the appropriate
disciplinary action.
a. Disciplinary action will not normally be initiated until the time
period for appealing the ruling has passed or until an appeal has
been ruled upon.
b. Notwithstanding C.1.a, a Director may initiate disciplinary action
and/or remove an employee from duties related to the accident
whenever the Director determines the incident/accident was of
such serious nature that immediate action is warranted.
B. EMPLOYEE RIGHTS:
1. In all cases, the employee whose case is being heard will have the
opportunity to be present and will be provided written notification at
least five (5) business days prior to the hearing.
2. The employee will be permitted to have one person of their choosing
with them to assist in their presentation to the ARC and may produce
voluntary witnesses that have direct knowledge of the incident.
3. Employees may not cross-examine witnesses or staff. All questions must
originate from the ARC.
4. The employee shall have fourteen (14) calendar days from the date the
Risk/Safety Management Notification Memo was issued to appeal the
ruling to the ARC (all appeals must be in writing and signed by the
affected employee).
C. ARC/ARB APPEAL PROCESS:
The written request for appeal will be given to the County Administrator for
review. In such instances the County Administrator may order the ARC to
reconvene for further deliberation on the case, or he/she may evaluate the facts
and render a decision. Such decision of the ARC or County Administrator will be
provided to the employee within fourteen (14) calendar days.
1. An employee's appeal process ends with the "Appeal" of a Risk/Safety
Management preventable ruling to the ARC.
2. Employees may grieve disciplinary action in accordance with personnel
policy and if the employee is a union member, with the collective
bargaining agreement.
3. If the Risk/Safety Manager has reason to feel that the ARC did not follow
proper procedures and/or the guidelines for determining the
preventability of an incident when making its determination, than the
Risk/Safety Manager may submit an appeal of that ARC ruling to the
County Administrator or designee.
4. The County Administrator or designee will review the records and reports
but need not hear oral presentations when making a determination.
VI. OTHER VIOLATIONS OF COUNTY POLICES AND PROCEDURES:
Determination that an incident or injury was Non -Preventable does not preclude
disciplinary action for other violations of County policies and procedures committed at
the time of the incident.
VII. DETERMINING ACCIDENT/COLLISION PREVENTABILITY:
The County uses National Safety Council (NSC) standards as a guideline. These standards
were established by the NSC and are recognized nationally. The foundation of these
standards is reasonableness; they should be interpreted based on how a reasonable
driver/operator would respond to a particular situation. Realizing the numerable
accident types, possible scenarios, and ways a driver/operator can prevent an accident;
these NSC standards should be used as a guide for determining accident preventability.
"A preventable accident is one in which in which a county driver/operator failed
to exercise reasonable precautions to prevent the accident. In other words, if a
driver committed errors and/or failed to react reasonably to the errors of others
the accident is preventable."
"A non -preventable accident is one in which the driver/operator committed no
errors and reacted reasonably to the errors of others, and observed applicable
county policies, procedures, and training, including the use of appropriate
defensive driving tactics."
These and other Preventability definitions focus on defensive driving, not legal
culpability. The fact that an operator who becomes involved in a vehicle collision
is not charged with a traffic violation by law enforcement does not mean that
the operator could not have prevented it.
The overall performance of county equipment operators and vehicle drivers
should be evaluated fairly and on a consistent basis. When an accident occurs,
the following factors should be evaluated:
1. The events leading up to the accident,
2. The causes and conditions,
3. The accident itself, and
4. The post -accident events.
5. Driver/operator actions and/or inactions are factors that should be
considered. The standard which should be applied in reviewing the
incident is the concept of accident preventability.
VIII. ARC STANDARD OF PERFORMANCE:
Accidents involve so many different factors that it is impossible to set hard and fast rules
to classify all of them as preventable or non -preventable. Each ARC member must make
his her own determination on each incident before them. In making these decisions, a
member will answer the question "What standard of safe driving/operating
performance do we expect of our employees?" If the County is lenient, it condones a
mediocre standard of operation and safe driving performance. Employees respect a
strict interpretation of the rules so long as the County insures that these interpretations
are made consistently and impartially.
A. PERSONAL VEHICLES AND USE OF COUNTY VEHICLES FOR PERSONAL USE:
If an employee regularly operates his/her own vehicle on official County business
and receives a monthly car allowance or mileage reimbursement, his/her
accidents that occur on-the-job should be reviewed following these guidelines.
Accidents involving drivers operating his/her own vehicles during off-duty hours
shall not be subject to ARC review. Accidents involving County -owned vehicles
or motorized equipment being operated by employees for County business shall
be reviewed following these guidelines.
1. Regardless of ownership of the equipment, all accidents/incidents
occurring while on duty must be reported immediately and are subject to
this policy.
1. ACCIDENTS INVOLVING MORE THAN ONE COUNTY DRIVER:
When two ll or more County vehicles are involved in the same incident, each
driver may be charged with a preventable accident regardless of which one was
primarily responsible for the occurrence. Although two (2) or more employees
may be riding in or on the same vehicle, a preventable accident will be charged
only against the person operating the vehicle.
2. WITNESS STATEMENTS AND POLICE REPORTS:
Each driver involved in an accident may contribute to it in some degree. If the
"other driver" admits he was at fault, it usually only means that he sees how he
contributed to the situation. Admission of being at fault by the "other driver", a
record of the "other driver" being cited for a traffic violation and witness or
police statements of exoneration of the County Driver/Operator are not, in
themselves, conclusive evidence to adjudge an accident "non -preventable."
Statements of exoneration are generally based on legal responsibility without
respect to the definition of preventability as used in these procedures.
Consequently, a careful study must be made of all conditions to determine how
the employee in question may have contributed to the situation by acts of
omission or commission. Unless a thorough investigation indicates that
employee in question could not have avoided involvement, by reasonable
defensive driving practice, accidents will generally be regarded as preventable.
1. Motor vehicle and equipment accidents are events that should be closely
reviewed to find the causes and to determine if some action on the part
of the driver/operator could have prevented the accident. All motor
vehicle and equipment accidents or damages, regardless of severity, are
to be reported and investigated. It is only by the inclusion of all incidents
that a statistically valid analysis of the causes of County vehicle and
equipment accidents can be made and plans and programs to reduce the
number of such occurrences can be developed.
2. The supervisor's investigation is performed as part of the department
incident reporting process and should be done independently of any law
enforcement investigation. The supervisor's report is an essential part of
the review, but is not the sole deciding factor. Any enforcement action
that may have been taken should be considered, but not with that action
as the sole deciding factor. In other words, all such aspects must be
reviewed in a combined context as the individual committee members
are making their determination.
The safety of our employees, our contractors and their employees, the public and County
operations are paramount and shall take precedence over expediency!
Approved for Implementation:
Signed: _"' Date: �"
County Administrator