Even before the U.S. Labor Dept. set a goal of lowering the number of accidents involving Hispanic workers, the project team at the $2.6-billion dollar expansion of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had set up an insurance program that called for 40 hours of safety training before a worker could set foot on the site. Usually, that number of hours is required only for workers dealing with hazardous materials.

With the cost of the 40-hour training roughly $900 per worker, the total safety training expense is running 20% above expectations, say airport project managers. But the number of injuries is way below average. One cause of the overrun is that the safety training team is using hands-on demonstrations.

LOW RISK Hispanic workers train for safety in Texas. (Photo courtesy of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport)

"We analyzed various methods, and rather than read a book or use a CD, and instead of talking about safety harnesses, we had people tie the harness on," says Clay Paslay, the airport's executive vice president for development. The number of workers trained is also running higher than early estimates because of higher-than-expected turnover. So far, 4,200 workers have been trained, about half of them in Spanish. The project will hit peak employment in a year and be finished in 2005.

The project's rate of recordable injuries is 0.1 per year per 100 workers, much better than the industry average of 3.9 for similar work. "It's certainly paying big dividends in fewer claims from the standpoint of fewer injuries and lost time," says Paslay.

The airport's successful bidder for its insurance program, the Zurich Group, had to provide an extensive safety program. The nonprofit Construction Education Foundation, an affiliate of the Associated Builders and Contractors, won the basic safety training contract and subcontracted part of the work to BEST Institute Inc., Garland, Texas.

Both BEST and the airport team say that an important part of training Hispanic workers is teaching them to challenge authority when a safety hazard is spotted. "What we try to instill is the idea that there is only one person truly responsible about how to keep safe, and it's nobody but you," says Joe Beaudette, BEST's executive vice president. John Larue, the airport's vice president of project controls and administration, says Hispanic workers unfamiliar with complex jobsites may not recognize the risks of equipment and tools and "the unforgiving nature of large construction."

The project's principal contractors, a unit of Austin Industries, Dallas, and Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Greeley, Colo., are working with some local subcontractors whose safety records may have been unexceptional, says Paslay. Whatever these firms lacked should be improved by extra training, he says.