Snow Safety Week is coming...

'We should do a Snow Safety Week!' I said to my 2 year old son. He wasn't too excited with the brilliance of this statement, but I persevered.

By Brian Birch, CAE
It was just over a year ago when my boss, SIMA CEO Martin Tirado, threw me an idea he'd been tossing around. It was Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' at the time, and he said simply; 'we should do something like that for the snow industry.' It was a relatively nonchalant statement, but I was intrigued.

Fast forward many months. Like all good ideas, this one was something that just kept popping back into my head from time to time. As SIMA has shifted to a more specific focus on safety in the industry, the 'Shark Week' concept hit me full blast - 'We should do a Snow Safety Week!' I said to my 2 year old son. He wasn't too excited with the brilliance of this statement, but I persevered.

I went back to Martin and Phill Sexton, our Director of Education and Outreach, and pitched the concept to them...they were intrigued, and we began planning what we hope will be a tradition for all of us in the industry - using one formal week each year to talk safety and snow removal.

We are very excited at the opportunity to work with our publishing partner, Moose River Media, to deliver Snow Safety Week to the industry, March 25th - 28th, 2013. We have planned a diverse program that includes a free webinar, Conducting a Post-Season Safety Review, for anyone in the industry, almost a dozen topical articles on safety issues, multiple facilitated discussions at Plowsite.com, and more. We are also excited to thank Progressive Insurance as a 2013 Snow Safety Week sponsor!

Please take a moment to add Snow Safety Week to your organization's calendar, and share the concept with your employees, subs, and operators. It may seem strange to focus on safety at the end of the season, but we feel this is an opportune time to reflect on the past season while it's fresh, talk safety, make changes, and continue to create a safer working environment for employees and customers. 

Hope to hear from all of you if you have any thoughts on this concept, and how we can improve it!