Our 2007 Safety Record

Ford's workplace safety record in 2007 was mixed. On the positive side, two major safety indicators – lost-time case rates and severity rates – continued to improve. These two measures dropped 22 and 14 percent, respectively.

The continued steady improvement in these routine indicators is not only good for our employees, it's good for our business. We recently calculated that progress in lost-time cases and days since 2000 has saved the Company $124 million, with recurrent annual savings of approximately $30 million in direct costs.

However, the number of serious injuries and fatalities did not meet our goals in 2007. Tragically, we experienced nine fatalities, including seven direct Ford Motor Company employees in the Americas, one contractor in Europe and one contractor in South America. We also experienced 187 serious injuries, involving 162 employees, 14 contractors and 11 joint venture employees. In most of the cases, the causes were in high-risk focus areas for us, including issues relating to pedestrian safety in plants, energy control and power lockout, and lifting and rigging.