Watco’s 2024 Safety Person of the Year: Alabama Southern Railroad’s Ian Price
Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
Alabama Southern Railroad’s Ian Price named Watco’s 2024 Safety Person of the Year.
Courtesy of Watco via The Dispatch
BROOKWOOD, Ga. - The newly developed Safety Person of the Year award for 2024 was awarded to Ian Price of Alabama Southern Railroad, or ABS.
In Watco’s The Dispatch newsletter, members of the ABS team and members of Price’s family joined in on the celebration.
Ian Price expressed his thanks for the award, stating, “It is a big honor to be recognized for coming out here and doing what everybody’s doing for safety. I don’t know if I deserved it more than anyone else, but I do appreciate being nominated and getting the award.”
ABS General Manager Cain Greene said, “When we hire a new team member – conductors, engineers, or someone in maintenance of way – before they ever work in the field, I put them with Ian. This was his idea, to deepen their awareness of why it’s critical for us to have safe track to run on. We put them in the truck with Ian for a week so that they can understand what he’s looking for and learn to look for that, too. The track laborers understand why they’re out there fixing defects. The conductors learn to see things more as Ian does, so that while they’re on an engine in the field, they can spot any flaw and report it before the track inspector even sees it.”
Greene added that Price works to further the safety initiatives of the team, often by making at least one safety suggestion per week. Greene said, “A conversation I had with one of his track department team members illustrates this. . . My track department is super-close. They hang out together outside of work. They’ve all given each other nicknames. But Ian doesn’t have a nickname. Instead, they call him Mr. Price, and I asked someone why. Their answer was: ‘Because he deserves all our respect.’ This is what everyone on the team thinks of Ian, not just the track department – our train masters, our office administrator, all 60 plus of us. To me, Ian is an irreplaceable team member. He is exactly the kind of person to represent Watco.”
Vice President of Safety Brad Walker said, “Ian is a real asset, and we’re fortunate to have him at the Alabama Southern Railroad.”
