When most people think of Geico, they think of the Gecko. Few realize that when it was founded, Geico served federal employees exclusively.
Even though they've expanded to include the general public, the company continues to honor its roots by recognizing the accomplishments of federal employees every year through its Public Service Awards.
This year, they've chosen to recognize Lonnie Scott, Fort Campbell's Army Traffic Safety Training program manager, with the Traffic Safety and Accident Prevention Award.
"I'm kind of a level guy and if you looked at me, you'd probably go, 'well he's not excited at all,' but I was very excited," Scott said. "It's actually quite an honor. I really wasn't aware of what a nice award this is until I won it. I've talked to some other people who've won it and they said 'you'll be treated like a rock star.'"
Scott said that he didn't even know until he came back from Easter that his boss, Harvey Jones, garrison safety manager, had even nominated him for the award. So, the call from Geico was a pleasant surprise.
"I nominated Lonnie for the award primarily [because] the accident reduction rate on our installation not only met, but exceeded the Chief of Staff of the Army's guidance," Jones said. "Everybody here does accident prevention, but he looks at it from a different area so that played a role in it as well."
Through the efforts of the ATSTP office, Fort Campbell saw an overall accident reduction rate of 55 percent from 2005 to 2009, with a 50 percent drop in automobile accidents and a 66 percent drop in motorcycle fatalities.
And Scott insisted that it was a team effort.
"Having enough instructors and facilities large enough to handle the demands for the training has been our biggest problem," Scott said. "That's the hard part, trying to get everybody done as quickly as possible. These guys are in and out of here in such a short period - we have enough [trainers] to accomplish the mission, but we could use more."
Jones said the award was an honor because it said a lot about Fort Campbell as a whole.
"It says a lot about what Fort Campbell is doing in the accident reduction arena," Jones said. "He's the program manager, but it took all the employees on Fort Campbell to gather this award for him. To see where we've come from and where we're going. We've made some big strides."
Scott said he planned to continue to reduce the rate of accidents on Fort Campbell and hoped that ATSTP receiving its own permanent office would help to further future success.
"Between the command influence and the training, we've managed to reduce it quite a bit and continued to keep it down for quite a few years," Scott said. "I get a lot of help from the installation to try to make this work. It was a team effort and we try to go forward and do better. Try to save lives is what we do actually."
Scott will depart April 29 to receive his award in a ceremony held in Washington D.C.
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