DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997              TAG: 9703270428

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

ACCIDENTS ARE DOWN, BUT TWO DIED LAST YEAR

Even as dockworker safety in the port of Hampton Roads improves, two deaths last year highlight just how dangerous working on the docks can be.

For 10 years, the number of significant injuries has been dropping as the hours worked have gone up.

The number of dockworkers injured fell to 148 last year as man-hours rose to about 2.4 million, according to the Hampton Roads Shipping Association. In 1986, 323 dockworkers were injured in about 1.4 million hours of work.

Still the deaths of Leroy Wescott and Margie Porch brought to five the number of longshoremen who have died on the docks in the past 10 years. The two died as a result of separate accidents on Oct. 9.

``Even when you enjoy your successes, you have to face your failures,'' said Daniel R. Harrison, port safety director for the HRSA, which represents the management of the terminals, stevedoring firms and shipping lines in their dealings with the dockworkers union, the International Longshoremen's Association.

ILA Local 1248's Wescott was lashing containers on the Tyson Lykes at Norfolk International Terminals when he reached for a bar that had just been moved. He fell 60 feet off the ship to the wharf, dying later at the hospital.

Porch, of Local 1458, became the first woman to lose her life on Hampton Roads' docks when she died in a hospital 11 days after the forklift she was driving crashed onto railroad tracks in an NIT warehouse.

Under the pall of last year's deaths, the HRSA-ILA Joint Safety Committee hosted its 10th annual Edwin J. Adams Safety Awards Banquet on Tuesday night at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club. The event recognizes the safety accomplishments of companies and longshoremen.

I.T.O. Corp. of Virginia walked away with the top award for best companyperformance. I.T.O. is a stevedoring firm that loads and unloads cargo from ships.

Another stevedore, Ceres Marine Terminal Inc., won the award for most improved safety performance in the past year.

Robert E. Gleason, secretary and treasurer of the New York-based ILA, lauded the port of Hampton Roads' safety record in his keynote address at the banquet.

``Safety is everybody's job,'' Gleason said. ``It's not enough for labor and management to create and implement programs to ensure a safe workplace.''

``If we can reduce accidents, we increase the economic potential of the port of Hampton Roads, which creates jobs and improves the quality of life for all our brothers and sisters on the waterfront,'' said Roger J. Geisinger, the HRSA's president and chief negotiator.

MEMO: Staff Writer Christopher Dinsmore can be phoned at 757/446-2271 or

e-mailed at (dins(AT)pilotonline.com)

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu