We recently heard about two terribly tragic young worker fatalities in Washington and in Calgary.

The first, a fifteen-year-old working near a gravel crusher, had held the job for only a month and a half. Although being investigated by Alberta Occupational Safety and Health, a co-worker reported that the victim was operating a piece of heavy equipment when something went wrong. The second fatality, in Washington State, was a nineteen-year-old working as part of a three-person team blowing bark who fell into an auger.

Sadly, there is not a single miracle solution to keep people safe at work. Certainly important starting points include effective safety and health training provided to all employees prior to beginning work.

SAIF Corporation has created fact sheets and tools to help Oregon employers effectively train and provide safe and healthy workplaces for all employees, including those who are young or new to a job. Most recently released is an 11-minute webinar titled Young Workers, Old-School Training which is freely available online. Check it out and see what you think – and share it with employers. Also visit SAIF’s Young Worker page to view other resources, including Young Worker, Smart Strategies fact sheets. Also accessible on this page are fact sheets created by O[yes], targeted directly to young workers and their parents. Finally, for even more resources, visit the Young Worker page on our Occupational Health Sciences Library (or CROETweb).