Numbers don’t always tell the whole story. When you look at our injury rate, 2014 was our best year on record for decreasing our TICR, which we use to compare our safety performance to that of other large utilities. We also decreased OSHA recordable injuries by 11 percent from 2013.

However, Chris Dasher, Mike Davis, Keith Jester and David Pate – all Duke Energy colleagues – lost their lives on the job last year. We will continue to investigate and understand why accidents occur, and learn from these experiences to prevent situations that might result in serious injuries or fatalities, near-miss events and operational errors in the future.

2014 was one of the worst years we’ve experienced in fatalities. We must do better.

Every day, many of our teammates work to address hazardous situations by managing risks to provide essential services to our customers and communities. In 2015, every member of our team will work harder to make sure every teammate, whether employee or contractor, returns home to his or her family every day. This will take resolve, tenacity and courage.

We must remember every day why we are here – to deliver an energy experience our customers value and trust. People count on us to be safe, and nothing will take precedence over that. We must be proactive in identifying risks and taking action before injuries occur to our employees and contractors, using the tools and processes in place to do so.

We can’t turn back the clock, but as a company, we will work together to make 2015 truly the best ever for safety.