This year at the National Safety Council, our goal was to shift the conversation around how people approach safety at work, at home and on the road. We constantly challenge ourselves to follow the data and support what works in order to eliminate preventable deaths in our lifetime.
In 2017, we reached program milestones and pushed the envelope with our research, advocacy and education initiatives. We inspired people to re-evaluate what they do behind the wheel, better understand their prescription medications, and think about safety culture on the job as well as off the job.
This past year heralded a number of firsts for the Council: kicking off new campaigns around fatigue and opioids, connecting visual literacy to hazard recognition, and grading all 50 states on how well they address safety. While we are committed to innovation and trying new things, we never lose sight of our vision of eliminating preventable deaths at work, in our homes and communities, and on the road.
While we are proud of the NSC team and our volunteers for many endeavors this year, our most enduring accomplishment is laying the groundwork for safety professionals to be successful and building a safety culture for all of us, no matter where we live or work. Despite all we’ve achieved individually and collectively, the rising fatality numbers, both on the job and off the job, show us that there is still a lot of work to do.
Thank you for joining us in our efforts to keep each other safe.
Deborah A.P. Hersman, NSC President and CEO
Mark Vergnano, NSC Board Chair