UP set new safety record in 2015

Union Pacific Railroad employees set an all-time reportable personal injury rate record in 2015, improving 11 percent from 2014 to 0.87, UP announced today.

The injury rate makes UP the safest Class I in the United States based on Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) data, according to a UP press release.

A railroad's reportable injury rate is the total number of injuries reported to the FRA per 200,000 employee hours, which is equivalent to 100 employees working a full year.

"Successfully finding and addressing risk in the workplace clearly is having a positive impact, as we seek to achieve annual records on our way to an incident-free environment," said Cameron Scott, UP executive vice president-operations.

In 2016, UP will mark 20 years of a "Total Safety Culture," a voluntary employee-led initiative that aims to teach employees safe behavior while providing observations and feedback. The initiative was implemented and is led by UP union employees.