Safety’s Successful Near Miss Reporting Program
8/25/2006

WE ARE COMMITTED TO EMBRACING CHANGE BY LEARNING AND GROWTH

DETROIT, MI – Detroit Chassis LLC, an automotive manufacturing company of niche vehicles and RV chassis announced the successful implementation of its Near Miss reporting program, today. Since its inception, our program has revealed 60 near miss incidents. Near misses are incidents that have the potential to cause injury or property damage and are the result of unsafe acts and/or unsafe conditions. They require corrective action to prevent their reoccurrence.

Most accidents can be predicted by near misses. According to the National Safety Council, 75 percent of all accidents are preceded by one or more near misses. All associates need to identify and eliminate the causes of near miss incidents to minimize the likelihood of future injuries or property damage. A close call really is a call to action.

DCP experienced an above industry average for recordable injuries in 2003 and 2004. We implemented an aggressive Safety program in the 3rd quarter of 2004 to heighten safety awareness and we decided to focus on eliminating recordable injuries. DCP adopted the near miss concept that meant all occurrences should be reported even if there was no injury or property damage.

In order to act on near misses, we needed to know about them. Our associates were trained to inform team leaders of incidents. Each issue was investigated and reenacted to determine root causes, and corrective actions were put into place. As a result, we reaped the benefit of increased associate participation and a decrease in recordable injuries and property damage.

Our near miss reporting process was given added attention in August of 2005. Associates reported 17 incidents in 2005 and to date 43 incidents have been reported for 2006. We have had no recordable injuries for 2006.

Contact: Linda Ratliff, 313-571-2100 x 506, lratliff@detroitchassis.com