Don Lacy, director of safety for Prime Inc., has been presented the 2011 Safety Professional of the Year award by the Truckload Carriers Assns. (TCA) Safety & Security Division.
The Safety Professional of the Year award recognizes a person whose actions and achievements have had a positive benefit to improving safety.
The award, known as the Clare C. Casey Award, was presented to Lacy during the 30th annual Safety & Security Meeting at the Hyatt Embassy Suites Murfreesboro (TN) Hotel and Conference Center.
“TCA is pleased to recognize Don Lacy for a 46-year career that has had tremendous influence on the trucking industry and the safety rules and regulations that govern it,” said Gary Salisbury, TCA chairman and president & CEO of Fikes Truck Line. “He is passionate about safety and has worked diligently both within his company and the entire industry to effect positive changes in this field.”
Under Lacy, Springfield, MO-based Prime has improved its DOT accident frequency ration from over 0.80 in 1996 to 0.57 in 2010. Among his accomplishments was the establishment of Prime University, a forerunner to Prime’s current training center.
“Don has accomplished a great deal to polish our image with truck drivers nationwide,” said Robert E. Low, president of Prime. “For six years, he has appeared as a guest on Road Dog, a weekly Sirius Satellite Radio segment that allows drivers to call in live. He was dubbed ‘The Voice of Reason,’ answering drivers’ questions about safety and regulatory issues. This helped in tough industry times.”
The 46-year safety veteran also is responsible for initiating weekly driver safety meetings as well as leading efforts to fund and implement safety initiatives, including rollover prevention and electronic logs.
Lacy is an active participant in TCA, past chairman of the Independent Contractor and Safety & Security divisions, and serves as TCA’s safety representative on the board of the Professional Truck Driver Institute.
Lacy holds the title of past chairman for the National Safety Council’s Commercial Motor Vehicle Section and the Oklahoma Trucking Association. He is a past national chairman of the American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) Council of Safety Supervisors. Some of his other activities include the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Blueprint for Safer Roadways and an alternative parking project, and serving as a truck driver training advisor for Ozarks Technical Community College.
Prime employs almost 5,000 drivers running more than 4,000 trucks.
