Morning Session - Wednesday, March 20, 1935 - Ten Years of Safety Work at Dawson

MR. DAVIS: When the Secretary asked me to continue our accident experience in safety work at Dawson to cover the year just closed, I rather felt that he was asking 'a good deal, for we had said about everything that we could last year. I am not going to say very much, but in line with his request I have merely brought the figures up to date. I want to say, to start, that 1934 was, rather disappointing. It was the poorest year since 1930, as you will notice (indicates on diagram). This first column represents the accidents per thousand shifts worked. We cannot assign any real valid reason for the increase. We think we worked just as hard, but we are rather inclined to lay it onto the times; in other words, to lay it to the unrest and the changing conditions that are existent not only in this country but probably all over the world. We had twelve lost time accidents last year. As I explained last year, a lost time accident with us is an accident wherein the injured man is not able to return to his regular work, the next day-the day following the injury. So this represents (indicating) the lost time accidents per thousand shifts worked. We had one fatality in the twelve accidents which is reflected in the severity rates, which are also based upon thousand shifts worked instead of per million hours. The reason we are on the thousand shifts worked is be¬cause the Copper Branches of the Phelps-Dodge Corporation are all kept that way, and we are on the same basis for easy comparison.