DENVER – The Associated Builders and Contractors Rocky Mountain Chapter (ABCRMC) honored Pinkard Construction Field Safety Manager Dave Ruddy as the Tony Dietrich Safety Professional of the Year last week at ABC’s annual Safety Conference & Awards Luncheon at The Westin Westminster.
The award recognized Dave’s contribution in taking a personal interest in his coworker’s safety and wellbeing, and for making positive changes that improved Pinkard’s safety record. Some of Dave’s accomplishments while at Pinkard include creating a Silica Safe work plan; helping to create a subsidized purchasing program for prescription safety eyewear for field employees; developing a personal pre-task safety plan that includes hard hat tethers to lessen or eliminate injuries or property damage; and the creation of audio-visual site-specific safety orientations in English and Spanish that are far more impactful, bringing greater employee participation.
Pinkard Risk Manager Mike Warns: “David is a complete safety professional whose passion for his work is demonstrated in his total commitment to everything relating to safety—not only within our organization, but in the construction industry as well. He shares that passion in a way that enables everyone to take safety seriously and personally. He always delivers relevant safety information and best practices with a positive message that enables our employees and subcontractors to respect his position and take ownership of their own safety responsibilities.”
Dave is also extensively involved in numerous local and national safety organizations, including ABC Rocky Mountain Safety Chair (two years), NUCA Safety Chair (four years), ASSP member (11 years), ASAC member (7 years), and continued participation in the annual OSHA Fall Safety Stand Down at five Pinkard project sites, with OSHA recognition the past three years.
Dave Ruddy joined Pinkard in 2015, filling a two-year-long field safety manager vacancy that left Pinkard in dire need of a safety program rebuild. Since 2015, he developed multiple field safety tools and procedures that include weekly safety assessments performed by superintendents and supplemented by Pinkard operations teams.
Mike Warns: “Pinkard has realized a significant reduction of injuries, reduced EMR, and a dramatic increase in safety focus and awareness, all of which are directly attributable to David’s oversight, mentoring, and training.”
The ABC event, which is held annually to educate ABC members and to recognize those who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to safety, began with a breakfast and keynote speaker who presented the importance of stretching and ergonomics to avoid injury and ultimately improve employee health and safety.
Following breakfast, participants attended a variety of educational sessions followed by the awards luncheon. In addition to the Safety Professional of the Year award, other safety awards were presented to member individuals and companies who showed exceptional safety efforts in their categories.
The Safety Professional of the Year award was judged by a group of industry professionals including representatives from insurance and bonding, safety consulting, and other safety professionals from the general contracting and subcontracting communities. The award is named for the late Tony Dietrich of dcb Construction, who helped pioneer dcb’s safety program. Tony was also a past chairman of the ABCRMC safety committee.
About Pinkard Construction
With 57 years headquartered in the Colorado Front Range, Pinkard Construction Company is a design-builder and CM/GC known for state-of-the-art preconstruction services, exceptional client service, and national-award winning projects. Pinkard is also the past recipient of three National Safety Excellence awards from ABC. For more information, please contact Jim Mellor at 303.986.4555 or visit our website at www.pinkardcc.com.
About ABC
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national construction industry trade association established in 1950 that represents more than 21,000 members. Founded on the merit shop philosophy, ABC and its 70 chapters help members develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically and profitably for the betterment of the communities in which ABC and its members work. Visit us at https://www.abcrmc.org/
