(The following story by Larry Tanglen appeared on the Laurel Outlook website on September 30. D.K. Roth is a member of BLET Division 232 in Laurel, Mont.)
LAUREL, Mont. — Safety is serious business for David “D.K.” Roth, safety chairman for the Billings/Laurel area for Montana Rail Link.
It’s serious business, but it’s obvious he enjoys it. “I love it,” Roth said with a smile on his face. “It’s important to me. That’s why I do it. My hope is that each day we go to work and return home safely to our families with no injuries.”
Roth has been local MRL safety chairman for the past six years. He is a locomotive engineer and regularly travels between Laurel and Helena. He has been railroading for 28 years, the last 18 with MRL.
Roth has been awarded the Hammond Safety Award twice, first in 2000, and again this year. “It’s quite an honor,” he reflected. “All shortline railroads in the nation compete for the award.”
“If you get rid of bad attitudes, you go along way toward making a safer work place,” Roth observed. He regularly makes presentations on how employee attitudes are tied to workplace safety.
“People spend too much time focused on negative things that don’t really matter,” said Roth. “It’s more productive to spend time looking for positive solutions than to waste your energy with negative attitudes. You’ll be much happier, and your life be happier too, following that advice.”
He summed up his attitude philosophy with this rhyme:
“For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy or there is none.
If there be one, try to find it,
If there be none, never mind it.”
Since becoming safety chairman, each year he tries to stage an alternative safety exercise to involve the community’s first responders, such as firemen, law enforcement and ambulance personnel.
Last Wednesday afternoon, he staged a hazardous materials (haz/mat) incident on East Railroad Street just before 6 pm. Members of the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department had to respond to extinguish fires in a tank car containing liquid propane gas (LPG), and boxcars containing sodium and anhydrous ammonia. The exercise also included a car crashing into the train at the intersection of the train track on East Railroad in front of Fox Lumber Company.
“The Laurel firemen responded admirably for a volunteer organization,” Roth said. After the exercise, he met with the firemen to discuss the response and how it could be improved. “We came away understanding the need for us to work together with each other in responding to emergency situations.”
MRL has its own four-member haz/mat response team of Laurel employees. “In a real haz/mat emergency, they become our team to work with community first responders.”
Four times during the year, Roth stages haz/mat drills to be sure employees know where to go to protect themselves. “We have ‘safe havens’ established in case of a chlorine or ammonia leak. We want to be sure our people know how to get to a safe place as quickly as possible.”
Next year, Roth hopes to do a training exercise to involve more emergency responders and possibly include CHS refinery personnel.