Vermont Business Magazine A staff-member of the Associated General Contractors of Vermont has been recognized by the National Safety Council and the Vermont Governor’s for Outstanding Workplace Safety. Norman James, Manager of Project RoadSafe, a workplace driver safety training program at AGC/VT, was honored with the Vermont Governor’s Award for Outstanding Workplace Safety, and the National Safety Council’s Alive at 25 Instructor of the Year award. The National Safety Council has recognized James as its Instructor of the Year for teaching the Alive @ 25 teen driving program and the Governor’s Award was special recognition for James’ efforts in education and outreach for occupational highway safety.
David Henderson, Norm and Lindel James, and Scott Meyers. Photo by John Boutin/VBM
Cathleen Lamberton, AGC/VT Executive Vice President, said, “These two awards are especially rewarding because they recognize Norm’s hard work and dedication to helping younger drivers understand the role that attitude and behavior play in being safe on our highways.”
David Henderson, Director of the National Safety Council of Northern New England, presented the Alive at 25 Instructor of the Year Award said, “Norm was chosen from hundreds of instructors across the country for this well-deserved acknowledgement of his dedication, leadership, and commitment to safe teen driving in Vermont.”
Scott Meyers, chief of Project WorkSAFE in the Vermont Department of Labor, presented the Governor’s Award to James saying that his strong advocacy for driver safety deserves this recognition and that James has been on the front line of workplace driver safety for more than a decade.
Lamberton said her organization saw considerable merit in the RoadSafe program three years ago and decided to include it in their extensive workplace training and education curriculum. She said that James also contributes a special driver safety program as part of their OSHA and MSHA training agenda.
The National Safety Council describes the Alive at 25 program as “a highly-interactive course that helps young adults take greater responsibility for their driving by focusing on behavior, judgment, and decision making.” Lamberton said the program was tailored for the Technical Career Centers in Vermont based on comments from several teachers who said many students have chosen professions which, as a part of their employment, will be driving for work.
“Norm strives to introduce attitude as the component that will drive their behavior on the road,” she said. “Basically the program helps young drives understand consequences to their driving behavior with non-threatening and non-judgmental interactive discussions about taking responsibility and being in control of themselves.”