Colonial Mechanical Corporation, Issue No. 2

October  2001

The Contractors Critic
Colonial Mechanical 
A FIRST ENERGY COMPANY
Reporting on Safety, Productivity, and Honesty in the Construction Industry.

Accidents, Injuries and Safety Violations

Colonial’s Accident Rate 50-70% Higher than the National Average

Oddly enough, even though Colonial’s own written calculations showed an accident frequency rate of 17.3 accidents per one hundred construction workers, with 77 workers injured overall, for last year. However, Colonial Mechanical newsletter told its own employees that their accident rate last year was only 10.3, with 76 injuries. It appears that Colonial ‘cooked" their incidence rate figure, by "diluting" their construction man-hours with the man-hours worked by their office and administrative staff. That has the effect of spreading those 76 injuries out, over many more man-hours. Fixing the accident figures by adding in the clerical man-hours does not change one fact; Colonial Mechanical’s construction workers are having accidents at well above the national average for the construction industry.

The Contractors Critic asks the question of Colonial Mechanical Corporation on whether they even care about safety. The following is a report of a very serious traffic accident involving an employee who became drunk at a company sponsored picnic and then got into a company truck and wrecked the truck.

On June 9, 2001, Colonial Mechanical held its annual employees’ family picnic at which the company hands out cash awards to three lucky field employees who remained accident-free for one year. "Primary entertainment is the pleasant company of the most talented mechanical construction and service people around, plus their immediate families," gushed Colonial Mechanical’s notice to their employees.

Unfortunately, according to the reports that the Contractor’s Critic has received, some of the "entertainment" at that picnic was in the form of alcohol drinks. If The Critic’s information is correct, that was a monumental lapse of judgment by Colonial Mechanical. Most companies recognize that getting their workers drunk at a company function is a bad idea and that the company can be held liable for whatever happens as a result.

What happened was very predictable. A Colonial Mechanical electrical supervisor was returned to his company truck by a company chartered bus from the picnic.  Alcohol was available on the bus, also. The supervisor was returned to his Colonial Mechanical truck in a drunken state and attempted to drive home. He ran off the road and totaled the company truck and received serious injuries, according to Colonial employees interviewed by the Critic. It was sheer luck that no one was killed. A recent Colonial Mechanical newsletter stated: "Trucks and vans with ‘Colonial Mechanical Corporation’s insignia ... portray an image of CM ... As you drive your CM vehicle, remember that you are a rolling billboard ... continue to drive safely and responsibly."

Those are admirable sentiments. But in practice, Colonial Mechanical appears to have allowed a policy that completely undermines safe and responsible driving. Instead of a rolling billboard, Virginia residents were inflicted with the image of a totally destroyed Colonial Mechanical pickup truck. The Colonial supervisor lost his job with no official explanation. The question remains, who will pay the price for Colonial Mechanical setting the stage for acts of drunkenness?