Asphalt Pro - March / April 2020

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safety spotlight

Lakeside Industries Takes Action with Trauma Kits company to asphalt plants, equipment maintenance shops, pavers, and foreman trucks for the paving, grade, and traffic control crews.

FIELD TRAUMA KIT CONTENTS

LEFT: At the awards ceremony, sponsored by Wirtgen Group, Lakeside Industries accepted the award for the trauma kit their safety professionals engineered. From left: Jay Winford, incoming 2020 incoming NAPA chairman; Sandy Lender, editor of AsphaltPro magazine; Cal Beyer, director of risk management for Lakeside; and John Harper, outgoing NAPA chairman. RIGHT: In addition to the development of the Field Trauma Kits, Lakeside has added trauma training to the basic first-aid training offered every two years to employees and supervisors. Editor’s Note: In the 2019 Operational Excellence category, Lakeside Industries Inc., Issaquah, Washington, was awarded the National Asphalt Pavement Association’s (NAPA) Asphalt Operations Safety Innovations Award for the development and implementation of the Field Trauma Kit for Worksites. AsphaltPro magazine is proud to sponsor the industry’s safety award and to share this article, which describes the company’s innovative kit. Lakeside Industries Inc., Issaquah, Washington, is well known in the construction industry for its proactive approach to incident and injury prevention. First-aid training and supplies have been an essential part of this proactive approach, providing all crews and supervisors with the tools to handle a first-aid situation, if necessary. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the “Stop the Bleed” campaign October 2015. It was designed to teach advanced knowledge and hands-on skills to stop bleeding in traumatic injuries from gunshots and terrorism. Members of the Lakeside Risk Man-

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agement and Safety Team decided this would be useful protocol to incorporate into our existing first-aid training, which already included cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillators (AED). Lakeside decided to purchase trauma kits for the field crews of mobile paving, grade adjustment, and traffic control operations, as well as those at fixed production facilities, including rock crushers, asphalt plants, and equipment maintenance shops. However, many of the commercial kits did not include all of the tools required for intermediate life support. Many of the kits that the team found included the basic first-aid kit supplies with additional gauze or a splint, but did not include the tourniquet or other supplies necessary to aid in a traumatic injury. After much research of the commercially available kits, the risk and safety department decided to develop its own field trauma kit. This trauma kit was designed specifically for the first aid of a traumatic workplace injury, such as puncture wounds, lacerations and amputations. Lakeside has currently distributed over 90 of the field trauma kits throughout the

Lakeside sought guidance for the contents of the field trauma kit from our first-aid trainer, who was an emergency medical technician for the Seattle Fire Department. We described our concerns and needs with him and brainstormed together the contents for the kit. The field trauma kit consists of the following: • 10-gallon waterproof, yellow dry bag (protecting the contents from all elements our crews may face) • CPR face mask • Universal aluminum splint • Tourniquet and permanent marker • Eight rolls of 4 ½-inch width gauze • Foil Mylar rescue blanket • 6-inch elastic bandage • Triangular bandage • Three pairs of rubber gloves • Instant cold pack • Medical tape • Medical scissors • 12 non-woven, all-purpose square gauze bandages • Safety glasses • Five yards of self-adhesive cohesive bandage All contents for the kit were purchased online and the total cost was less than $60. The trauma kit was built for less than the commercially available kits were selling for and satisfies the needs in case of a traumatic injury.

NAPA’s next Safety Awards program opens Aug. 1, 2020, with a submission deadline of Oct. 15, 2020. Visit www. AsphaltPavement.org/Awards to apply. The first version of the field trauma kit included anticoagulant, which the current model of the kit does not include. We decided


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