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Several dozen Warbud SA construction sites, hundreds of production workers and construction staff were focussing on one goal: the highest standard of work safety on construction sites - this is the image of this year's VINCI Safety Days and the Safety Week of the Agreement on Construction Safety which once again enriched us with knowledge, skills, the ability and courage to act - or to say STOP when necessary.

‘We have had an extremely busy period and a lot of activity in the area of occupational health and safety on construction sites and in offices. May has been marked with an intensive VINCI Construction Safety Day(s) campaign and the Safety Week of the Agreement on Construction Safety. The effort of every person involved in the implementation of Warbud and Eurovia construction projects as well as contractors and subcontractors whom we invited to celebrate the safety holiday, will pay off. I have no doubts about it,’ said Sebastian Lewiński, QHSE Deputy Director  at VINCI Construction Usługi Wsparcia. ‘We see right now what a big step we have taken towards building a safety culture, how many potential threats we have eliminated permanently, how many people we have saved from the consequences of accidents, and we will find out whether it is worth continuing to work. The main topics of this year's events are "order", "PRESTART / 5 minutes" and "SAY STOP" - they were very well received by the participants and, above all, they were well accepted. Our managers and directors conducted meetings and workshops on their projects and were personally involved in safety matters. We should also be grateful to site and contract managers who, despite their tight schedules, were able to find time and space for them.’

We organised both events in 27 locations. They were attended by 1,400 employees of Warbud and subcontracting companies. We prepared 135 activities not only raising awareness of the dangers but also showing how to eliminate them and how to react in the most difficult situations. There were workshops using road traffic safety simulators such as those for rollovers and collisions, trainings using alcohol and drug goggles, simulations of evacuation and rescue operations carried out, among others, by the Airport Fire Brigade. There were also first aid workshops. Everyone could find an interesting topic. Webinars on ergonomics in the workplace and building mental resilience in organizations were also very popular. We invited to them employees of Warbud, Eurovia and VINCI Construction Usługi Wsparcia.

A very interesting event was the training conducted by WOPR (Water Rescue Service) on the construction site of a bridge in Kostrzyn nad Odrą, where our colleagues tested themselves in theory and practice. ‘First, there was a theoretical presentation of first aid rules, CPR, dressing wounds and fractures, and then workshops in the marina, during which people practiced throwing a dart and a lifebuoy into the water. One of the WOPR rescuers played the role of an injured person. We were divided into two teams and our job was to safely swim to the drowning person, take him out of the water and transport him to the riverbank. We found out that it is not as simple as it may seem,’ says Dagmara Grzegorczyk, site assistant.

In Poznań we organised two days of trainings in evacuation of an injured person from hard-to-reach places on the site of the Central Integrated Clinical Hospital and on the site of the Wiktor Dega Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Clinical Hospital. ‘Under the professional supervision of the Rescue and Firefighting Unit No. 2 of the Municipal Headquarters of the State Fire Service in Poznań, we learned evacuation techniques, including those applicable to a person trapped in a deep well using a specialized rescue tripod, evacuating an injured person on a board-type stretcher - down the stairwell of a building, or a person trapped in an empty water tank, whose only opening was located 2.5 meters above the ground level,’ says Agnieszka Stawicka-Jańczak, senior OHS specialist at VINCI Construction Usługi Wsparcia. ‘After checking the situation and selecting an appropriate method, firefighters safely evacuated the person to the outside using a ladder, a rope system and a spine board. That was a great demonstration of skills, you can see that they know exactly what they are doing. Thanks to actions like those we can cope better in crisis situations, ensure the highest safety standards on our construction sites and outside them. We are grateful to the Poznań Firefighters,’ adds A. Stawicka-Jańczak.