Redwood Safety Contest

San Francisco, California, March 2I, 1945-Lost time injuries in the woods and mills of the California Redwood lumber industry during 19,14 declined from the preceding year by a substantial degree-representing improvement in accident experience for the fourth consecutive year. This gratifying record was achieved despite the unhappy combination of extra war-,born risks and the recognized hazards inherent in thd industry.

The 1944 annual Redwood safety competition just tallied revealed Caspar Lumber Co., Caspar, Calif., to have es-. tablished the new low Donovan Accident Index of 78.1. to win the industry's coveted C. R. Johnson Memorial Safety Trophy.

A 1943 winning Index of 86.9 was chalked up by Hammond Lumber Co., Samoa. In 1942, Holmes Eureka Lumber Co., Eureka, won with Index of 1@.2. Hammond took the initial 1941 contest with Index of 128.3.

Second place in the 1944 contest went to Holmes Eureka with an Index of 83.5. Union Lumber Company, Fort Bragg, was third with 83.6. Other competing companies in 1944 were llammond Lumber Company with Index of 87.9; Dolbeer and Carson Lumber Co., Eureka, 1O7.9, and The Pacific Lumber Co., Scotia, 129.1. The contestants account for about 90 per cent of California Redwood lumber production. They employ about 5000 persons.

The remarkable 4-year decrease in the California Redwood lumber industry's lost time injury rate is declared particularly significant in light of war-time conditions, with high labor turnover and relatively inexperien,ced personnel which have in most industries resulted in a consistent ride in the frequency of lost time accidents.

Safety officials of the industry attribute the gratifying record to the effectiveness of the'safety effort maintainei by Redwood operators and the effrcacy of the competitive spirit set in motion by the annual contest for the C. R. Johnson Memorial Safety Trophy.

The C. R. Johnson Trophy is a bronze plaque donated in 1941 by Otis R. Johnson, president of Union Lumber Co., in memory of his father, the late C. R. Johnson, rvho founded the company in the early eighties.

The Donovan Accident Index is a com,bination of frequency and severity; a weighed average that allows a de- gree of credit for holding down severity as well as frequency. By so doing it places an incentive on the availability and use of pr.otective devices, the development of effective first aid and the best possible medical and hospital care. The figure is arrived at by adding to ihe frequency ten times the severity rate.

Freqtrency figures tor 7944 contestants show Hammond Lumber Company low with 38.1; Caspar Lumber Company next with 53.7; The Pacific Lumber Company, 62.l; Union I-umber Company, 63.6; Holmes Eureka Lumber Company, 65.8; and Dolbeer & Carson Lumber Company, 89.4.

It is believed Caspar Lumber Company's low 1944 Donovan Accident fndex of 78.1 will have the effect of increasing interest in industrial safety throughout West Coast lumber operations.