The news that Delta Air Lines agreed last week to install seat belts on 6,000 pieces of GSE at 90 airports seems to be greeted with a ho-hum shrug of the shoulders. I haven’t read much more elsewhere about the implications this might have for our industry. The most interest I saw came from litigation lawyers' web sites that were more than happy to share this good news.
Delta cut the deal with OSHA following the August 2010 death of a baggage tractor driver who was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from his vehicle.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the home town paper for the airline, had more details about a memo Delta sent to employees after the agreement. The memo said many of its vehicles do not have seat belts. That might not be much of a surprise, but the memo went on to say that Delta averages 14 such ejections a year, with half of these accidents resulting in “serious employee injury.”
And one more sobering detail: Two Delta employees died in 2010 after being ejected from baggage tractors. (The story was not clear as to whether that was in addition to or included the driver whose death resulted in the seat belt order from OSHA.)
The agreement certainly spells out the enormity of what Delta needs to do. “The Parties recognize that a significant number of the over 6,000 Delta-owned Covered Vehicles are not currently equipped with functioning seat belts … equipping all Covered Vehicles with seat belts presents a challenge to the Company in terms of cost, labor, administration and continuity of operations, as the Covered Vehicles are used around-the-clock … ”
Covered vehicles are “bag tug, belt loader, cargo tractor, and/or ‘bob tail’ truck.” The agreement mentions all the name brands, makes and model numbers, too.
OSHA also sent out a “Dear Airline” letter reminding the industry that they have to do what Delta is doing. Or else. You can read that here. So is everyone just taking this sitting down or what?
