Fort Campbell safety manager wins safety professional of the year

By Joe Parrino, Fort Campbell CourierApril 2, 2009

Jennings
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT CAMPBELL, KY, April 2, 2009 -- An unbuckled seat belt can take a Soldier out of combat action as effectively as a bullet. That cold, hard truth makes a Humvee accident or any military accident more than just a tragedy. Because they threaten lives and missions, accidents are also enemies.

Intelligence on these enemies often comes from safety specialists like Jay Jennings. Jennings is the senior safety manager for 101st Sustainment Brigade, which is in the middle of redeploying from Afghanistan. All three deployments in his career were spent analyzing accidents in combat zones and advising commanders on how to carry out their missions safer.

Jennings' work was recently singled out by the civilian safety industry and awarded its highest honor, the Edgar Monsanto Queeny Safety Professional of the Year Award. The award has been given out annually by the American Society of Safety Engineers since 1980.

The ASSE identifies members who advance the safety, health and environmental professions and who demonstrate strong leadership within the society.

Maj. Adam Walton, the executive officer of the 101st Sustainment Brigade, said Jennings' achievement sends a comforting message to Soldiers' families.

"We had the very best safety professional in the country with us during our deployment," Walton said.

Walton cited the unit's perfect record during their year in Afghanistan. There were no fatal accidents anywhere in the brigade's operations.

Jennings said he was thrilled by the prestigious honor because it spotlights the combat applications of safety science.

"The hazards in our line of work are a bit different [from civilian industry]," Jennings said. "Most workplaces don't have people shooting at you or trying to blow you up."

Jennings belongs to ASSE's middle Tennessee chapter. The society invited Jennings to its 2007 convention to share his research on the accident analysis methods used by the Department of Defense. Then last year, Jennings' article graced the cover of the ASSE's trade journal June issue.

The article is a case study of a Humvee rollover that killed a Soldier deployed to Iraq in 2005. The Soldier was riding in the backseat when the driver lost control on a curve. The Soldier was thrown out and hit the ground with violent force. He died on impact.

The Soldier was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident. What is more, the truck commander onboard did not require anyone in the Humvee to buckle up.

But analysis by the U.S. Combat Readiness Center/Safety Center revealed there were other, systemic problems that made this more than just bad choices by individuals. The safety center uses a domino model of analysis that detects a sequence of errors. It is called the Department of Defense's Human Factors Analysis and Classification System.

Conditions were ripe for the Humvee rollover, the accident model revealed. First, the driver was under the stress of knowing that the area was known for attacks. Second, the driver was unfamiliar with the route and lacked radio communication with the other Humvees in the convoy to receive advance warning about the road conditions ahead.

The model also pointed to the Humvees themselves. Because of the public outcry over IEDs, Humvee fleets were retrofitted with armored plates and ballistic glass in 2005. The modifications gave the Humvee a higher center of gravity. Not only was the driver in the 2005 rollover not trained on how to handle the more top-heavy vehicle, but many Army drivers were similarly unprepared. Jennings' article said that rollovers increased at an alarming rate.

The analysis continued all the way to the top. Command elements failed to correct a culture of noncompliance with certain safety regulations. Thus, military policymakers too shared the blame for this one rollover.

Following the findings, the Army stepped up enforcement of seat belt regulations and training for Humvee drivers. By 2007, both rollovers and fatalities caused by rollovers had decreased about 75 percent.

This multi-tiered approach has been effective for correcting other deployment safety hazards such as faulty wiring in bathrooms and the failure to wear reflective belts. The approach has broad application, Jennings said, and can find high risk conditions in civilian organizations as well.

But as important as Jennings' research has been to his profession, the 101st Sustainment Brigade values him most for training Soldiers. Whether it be the safer handling of explosives or protection against frostbite, Jennings' supervisors say he personally touched every Soldier in the 1,200-man command.

Walton said Jennings kept up a ferocious pace during the deployment, conducting in-person safety classes for every unit every quarter. That required him to train on seven different forward operating bases and several remote locations where only a small team of Soldiers were dug in.

"He spent a lot of time away from his bunk," Walton said.

Jennings was also the principal safety advisor to the 101st Sustainment and Joint Logistics Commander Jeffrey Kelly, whom he credits for making safety a high priority.

Jennings also helped launch the Afghan National Army's Safety Program.