“You’ve thrown out all of your computer diskettes, now that you realize you have nothing to read them with anymore.”

“It takes an hour to compose and send a text message on your cell phone.”

“Too old for birth control and too young for bladder control.”

“You remember when no one had health insurance and nobody cared.”

“You know what a filmstrip is.”

AND MY FAV for the day, “You remember when SPAM referred to canned luncheon meat.”

Awww, the memories. And so it goes, as I clean out a years worth of memories from my office. I wish to each of you a great weekend leading into a new year. Be responsible if you are drinking. Take a cab and ARRIVE ALIVE. Many communities offer free transportation of some sort. Let’s use it. Here’s a to fabulous 2011 for all!

A federal jury in Detroit Michigan is hearing a wrongful death lawsuit arising out of a traffic accident that killed a mother and her two children when an SUV driven at 70 miles an hour by a sales executive for UGS (now Siemens) plowed into the back of their car. At the time of the afternoon accident, the sales executive had a blood-alcohol level of 0.43; the legal limit in Michigan is 0.08.

The UGS employee was the Executive Director for global sales in charge of a sales team. UGS enrolled the executive in an abbreviated five — day rehabilitation program approximately 5 months before the accident based upon suspicion that he had a serious drinking problem. The trial testimony thus far is that he continued to exhibit signs of alcohol abuse and it was obvious to numerous UGS employees that he continued to have a serious drinking problem. The executive was on his way from work at the direction of his boss to see a psychiatrist’s about his drinking problem and to report back with the doctor’s recommendations for treating his alcohol problems. The allegation is that the company knew or should have known that he was intoxicated while at work the day of the accident when he left it 2:30 pm; a blood sample was taken at 5:15 PM that same day showing a blood-alcohol level of 0.43.  USG says that it has no liability for its employee’s conduct and that the executive alone is to blame.

The UGS executive was sentenced in April 2006 to 19 to 30 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of the family members. The jury will decide whether UGS knew or should have known that the executive was drunk at the time he left the company office and should have take steps to detect such and stop him. The company has denied any responsibility.

No matter how this turned out in the courtroom, there is, clearly, no winner here. Such tragedy can be averted by using simple tactics of decision making ahead of time. Designated drivers are imperative. Cab rides or hotel rooms for your staff can also reduce or eliminate risk. Or perhaps consider an alcohol free event. There is nothing more valuable to us than life itself. Driving after drinking is risky business. REDUCE the RISK and ARRIVE ALIVE, DON’T DRINK and DRIVE.

The opiate category shows significant increases. The drugs included in that category are : methadone, propoxyphene, oxycodone, some other opiates.

What does all this mean? It is clear that prescription drug use is on the rise. Is it in your workforce? The above data was mined from EMPLOYED WORKER tests submitted to Quest for screening. The samples were submitted from a cross section of workers, including safety sensitive employees. Clearly, employers should take a good look a their drug screening program for improvement. You don’t have program? Then RUN, don’t stroll to TSS, Inc and talk to us. The TSS staff specializes in getting your company on track within legal guidelines. While most folks think EXPENSE, drug screening actually saves you money in lost productivity and worker comp claims. Using a return on investment calculator, we can give you the dollar amount that drug screening will save your company. You cannot afford to miss out on this key savings in your bank account. Simply put, drug testing saves you money and heartache.

Renee Schofield, CEO

TSS, Inc

Blessings to you all,

~Renee

Renee Schofield, CEO

TSS, Inc – The Safety Specialists