Dragon Cement and Concrete has set another safety record: the company's Cement Division boasts more than two years without a lost-time injury among its 110 employees. The new record of 525,000 hours without a lost-time injury eclipses the old mark of 494, 025 hours set in the 1980s. In October, Dragon's Concrete Division set a similar record for completing three years without a lost-time injury at the 10 concrete plants stretching from Biddeford to Madawaska. The safety records are a reflection of the success of an innovative, incentive-based safety program initiated by Dragon two years ago, company officials contend.

Dragon's Thomaston plant is New England's only cement manufacturing facility. Raw material for the portland cement produced in Thomaston is mined from a limestone quarry on the company's coastal Route 1 site. The cement is supplied to most ready-mix companies in Maine and to others throughout New England by barge through Coastal Cement terminals in Newington, N.H., and Boston.

The program has two basic components: involvement of all employees in the awareness and correction of problems; and, rewards for success. Accordingly, when employees in any division see something amiss, whether it's a loose platform or an employee not wearing safety glasses, they report it to the safety manager by filling out an Unsafe Practices Card, known as a “blue card.” The safety manager immediately addresses the situation by correcting the problem or by individual counseling. The reward for not having lost-time injuries is a gift certificate. Every quarter the division goes without a workplace injury, each employee is rewarded with a gift certificate.

Two years ago, the gift certificates began at $25 each. But the size of the gift certificates has continued to grow — $5 a quarter — as the safety record remains unbroken, meaning no time is lost in the division due to an injury. With 2002 underway, the certificates just reached $60, reports Joseph Koch III, president of Dragon Cement and Concrete.

Dragon's safety records have been applauded by the American Red Cross and MEMIC as well as its national trade associations, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and the Portland Cement Association, notes Koch. The company also has earned a number of environmental awards in recent years.