NEII Safety Committee Meeting

Safety directors from major companies gath-ered in August to discuss industry safety issues.

The National Elevator Industry, Inc. (NEII) held a quarterly Safety Committee meeting on August 9-10 at the Otis Service Center in Windsor, Connecticut. Safety directors of some of the major companies, in addition to liaisons from the National Association of Elevator Contractors, the National Elevator Industry Education Program and Elevator World, Inc. joined to discuss issues pertaining to industry safety.

One of the first orders of business was to elect a new chairman to replace Lou Deloreto of Otis, who moved to the Carrier Division of United Technologies Corp. and was succeeded by Bob Rodriguez. Fred Wilt of Schindler agreed to lead the group for the next couple of meetings. Wilt has been chairman of the committee twice before. Also in attendance was Amy Blankenbiller, NEII’s government-affairs representative.

One of the main discussion points covered company accidents and fatalities and how some can be prevented in the future. The issue brought up the need for every company to implement continuous safety training and refresher courses. Every meeting includes the discussion of accidents that have occurred in each company. These discussions are not recorded, but they provide each participant with vital information on where training needs to be increased or reinforced.

The next NEII Safety Committee meeting will be held in Mobile, Alabama, in January 2012. The discussions will concern adding guidelines to the Elevator Industry Field Employees’ Safety Handbook, pertaining to safety while working on machine-room-less elevators.