Posted on October 2, 2024
At the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association’s (NSSGA) annual Legislative & Policy Forum, the association named the winners of its Safety Excellence Awards, the Louis Griesemer Sterling Safety Awards and the James M. Christie Safety & Health Professional of the Year Award.
“Safety is a cornerstone of our industry,” says Michael Johnson, NSSGA president and CEO. “Our members remain dedicated to thorough training and emphasizing safety throughout their operations. Congratulations to the 2024 Safety winners for going above and beyond with promoting the safety culture in their facilities.”
Safety Excellence Awards
The Safety Excellence Awards recognize aggregates operations maintaining a safe workplace, evidenced by its safety performance over a consecutive period without an MSHA-reportable injury.
Nine operations were recognized this year. The awards were separated by small, medium and large operations.
Gold award winners were Holcim’s Bridgerton Sand Plant (small operations), Rogers Group’s Princeton Mine (medium operations) and Vulcan Materials’ Forest Park (large operations).
Receiving the silver award were Martin Marietta’s Bennet Alluvial operation (small operations), Rogers Group’s Tuscumbia Quarry (medium operations) and Granite Construction Co.’s Walker Sand & Gravel (large operations).
Dolese Bros. Co.’s Big Canyon Quarry received the bronze award for small operations, Cemex’s Prescott Aggregates was the bronze winner among medium operations and Vulcan Materials’ Parsons Quarry was the large operations bronze winner.
Louis Griesemer Sterling Safety Awards
The Louis Griesemer Sterling Safety Awards recognize NSSGA member companies having the lowest total accident incidence rate for the previous year in their size category.
Ten companies received the Sterling Safety Awards this year.
Gold award recipients were Martin Stone Quarries (small operations), Warren Paving (medium operations) and Rogers Group (large operations).
Receiving silver were Iddings Quarry (small operations), Anchor Stone Co. (medium operations) and Teichert Materials (large operations).
Bronze winners were Renner Quarries and Tresca Bros. Sand & Gravel (small operations), Burnco (medium operations) and Granite Construction Co. (large operations).
James M. Christie Award
The James M. Christie Safety & Health Professional of the Year Award honors superior contributions toward proactive safety and healthful operating practices. This year’s winner was Steve Benton, corporate director of safety at Peckham Industries.
According to NSSGA, Benton is well-known by his industry peers for his dedication to instituting safety practices and engagements in the NSSGA’s Health & Safety Committee. His accomplishments include developing a company-wide safety charter and leading an annual refresher training for all employees.
Under Benton’s leadership, Peckham is approaching world-class safety indicators in recordable incident rate and lost time incident rate, according to NSSGA, and now has 60 percent of employees trained in life-saving first-aid techniques.
