BNSF honors top safety employees of 2021

BNSF Railway Co. recently honored its Safety Employees of the Year for 2021.

The awards recognize outstanding BNSF leaders modeling safety across the major operations teams, including engineering, mechanical and transportation. Those recognized by the annual program "demonstrate BNSF’s vision and values through their commitment, leadership and focus on working safety and efficiently," BNSF officials said in the Class I's "Inside Track" newsletter.

The award winners for 2021 are:

• Jason Cox, gang foreman. Cox is a member of the Northwest division, where he works for a mobile construction crew that acts as first responders for track and structure repairs;
• Darrell Lippe, signal inspector. Lippe has worked for BNSF for 41 years and is known for doing his work methodically, responsibly and safely and has a perfect safety record;
• Chris Caven, machinist. Caven works out of the locomotive shop in Havre, Montana, where he trains other employees to develop safer processes and tools and their implementations; and
• Adam Florine, locomotive engineer. Florine was elected safety coordinator for the Chicago division, where he helped lower the division’s reportable injury rate by 35% overall and 42% among the transportation teams in 2021.