PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Officials for the City of Presque Isle are pleased to announce that they have been awarded a safety grant by the Maine Municipal Association Workers Compensation Fund in the amount of $2,545. The Ed MacDonald Safety Grants and Scholarship provide financial assistance to members of the MMA Workers Compensation Fund to purchase safety equipment or services to assist in reducing the frequency and severity of workplace injuries.
The grant will be used to purchase two sets of dump truck bed supports. Currently, the public works department has 10 dump trucks and often more than one truck is in for service at the same time. These supports ensure that if the hydraulics on the bed fail, the dump body will not come down on and injure staff working on the trucks. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has identified 31 accidents involving unanticipated movement with elevated truck bodies over the last 10 years. In nearly every case, the accident resulted in a fatality.
City Manager Tyler Brown stated, “OSHA does have a statute requiring that trucks with dump bodies have some sort of safety equipment to lock the body in place to prevent accidental lowering of the body while maintenance or inspection work is being done. To date, although the City has not logged any injuries from dump bodies hydraulic failure, there have been incidents in which the bodies have come down. We are very appreciative of this grant funding to ensure the safety of our staff and in such a way that the equipment purchase does not take away from other department funding needs.”
The grant programs are designed to prevent injuries and improve workplace safety for Maine employees. The reduction in employee injuries also benefits the taxpayers by lessening lost hours at work, cost of claims and potential overtime expenses for employees who might have to fill in for injured co-workers.
The Maine Municipal Association has been awarding safety grants to members of the Workers’ Compensation fund since 1999. The Ed MacDonald Safety Grants and Scholarships are an example of a successful partnership that has been preventing workplace injuries by bestowing more than $6.6 million in the funding of 4,687 Safety Grants and 552 Scholarships. Together we are building safe communities.
For more information about Maine Municipal Association Risk Management Service programs, including grant eligibility and applications, please visit www.memun.org and click on the Risk Management Services link, or call 1-800-590- 5583.
