Technician training and safety took center stage on day one of the 2024 Tire Industry Association OTR Tire Conference.
The three-day event, which is taking place in Las Vegas, Nev., kicked off on Feb. 21 with several presentations, including a panel in which three OTR tire safety experts emphasized the importance of following proper protocols when servicing OTR tires and wheels.
“Mine site fatalities spiked in 2023,” Jeff Faubion, compliance specialist at Bridgestone Americas Inc., told conference attendees.
Faubion was joined by Roy Galyer, training manager for Klinge Holdings Pty Ltd., and Russ Devens, director of safety and risk management for Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based McCarthy Tire Service Co. Inc.
Panel moderator and TIA Chief Technology Officer Kevin Rohlwing revealed that four tire service-related deaths occurred last year in the U.S.
The fatalities involved two commercial trucks, one light truck and a farm tractor – all of which fell off their jacks, he said.
The incidents “are an indication that the people doing these jobs – for whatever reason – are taking shortcuts or they’re going out there untrained,” said Galyer, who speculated that the common denominator across all four tragedies was “a lack of process.”
“There’s no reason” why people who service OTR tire and wheel assemblies shouldn’t be trained, said Devens, who added that his employer, McCarthy Tire, gives its technicians complete “stop work authority” when they encounter dangerous situations.
According to TIA, OTR tire service technicians should adhere to industry-approved safety principles, such as using a jack stand or cribbing to create two points of contact with machinery, using a restraining device during tire inflation, using remote inflation equipment, deflating tires before loosening lug nuts and standing outside the trajectory of a potential blow-out during inflation.
Another panel during the first day of the 2024 TIA OTR Conference discussed tire chain selection and maintenance.
“Chains allow for additional product (service life) and added value” for end users, Brian Cohn, president of OTRUSA.com, told attendees.
OTR tire dealers “really rely on service and chains are a service product,” he noted.
Selling, installing, maintaining and servicing tire chains can be “a revenue generator for tire dealers,” said Al Atkinson, North American product manager, Pewag Chain Inc., a sentiment echoed by fellow panelist Faith Sedele, the CEO of Las Zirh Tire Chains, a company based in Turkey.
OTR Tire Conference attendees also were treated to a live, in-the-field demonstration of OTR tire and wheel service, beamed from a remote location. The demo was hosted by Matt White, TIA’s director of off-road tire service, and involved the installation of tire chains.
Earlier in the day, TIA President Keith Jarman announced the establishment of the Marvin Bozarth ETS (Earthmover Tire Service) Technician of the Year Award, which honors Tire Industry Hall of Fame member and former executive director of the American Retreaders Association Marvin Bozarth, who died in 2022.
Bozarth was a noted champion of tire service technician training and education.
In addition to being members in good standing of TIA, award candidates must have completed 200-Level TIA ETS and Commercial Tire Service training programs, said Jarman.
TIA member companies also will be able to nominate candidates.
The winner of the award will be selected by TIA’s board of directors and chosen by an anonymous committee comprised of OTR tire manufacturers and suppliers.
More than 500 people representing 38 states and more than a dozen countries are attending this week’s OTR Tire Conference, according to TIA officials, with 90% having attended the event for more than a decade.
