Lowest injury rate recorded in Labs history

Jon Snell was nine years old when he watched a man fall nearly 20 feet from a ladder balanced precariously on a picnic table. His future brother-in-law landed flat on the concrete, his face smothered in paint, gasping for air. He was lucky. He walked away with some scrapes and a bruised ego, but young Jon walked away with something else: an understanding that humans make decisions that can have devastating consequences.

Laura Tidwell knows those consequences firsthand. In her early twenties, a horseback riding accident left her with an injury that took months to heal. She remembers the pain, the frustration and the way simple things like turning to check a blind spot while driving suddenly became brutal tasks.

“It was a wake-up call,” Laura said. “It made me realize how much an injury can take from you, both at work and in life.”

Years later, Jon and Laura, now Environment, Safety and Health senior managers at Sandia, have turned those experiences into careers dedicated to helping others avoid the same fate. And today, they have something worth celebrating.

Thanks to years of effort and a growing culture of safety, Sandia has accomplished a measurable shift in its safety culture that has culminated in the lowest injury rates in its recorded history, excluding months during the pandemic when on-site work was limited.

What that really means

While statistics can be dry, Sandia reaching its lowest ever recordable injury rate is anything but. For every 100 employees working at Sandia over the past year, 99.3% finished their workdays uninjured — a testament to a workplace where safety is a shared responsibility and becoming a cultural norm.

A recordable injury is one that requires medical treatment beyond first aid. That could mean stitches instead of a bandage, a prescription instead of over-the-counter pain relievers or restricted work duties instead of a full workload.

“If you look back at the past 10 months, our safety record has been consistently better than our three-year average and even further below our five- and 10-year trends,” Jon said. “That tells me we’re not just having a lucky year — we’re seeing a real shift in how people approach safety.”

For Jon, that’s an A-plus in an environment as complex and high stakes as Sandia, where employees work with intricate machinery, hazardous materials and cutting-edge technology. Maintaining safety is no small feat, and it’s something Sandia must do to deliver on its mission.

The anatomy of an achievement

Making Sandia a safer workplace required a coordinated effort to change how safety is approached across all organizations. This transformation relied on data-driven decision-making and a Labswide commitment to prevention.

For years, Laura’s and Jon’s teams and their partners analyzed trends, identified risk areas and tackled hazards before they resulted in injuries. Teams studied where and why injuries were happening, giving safety professionals a roadmap to prevent future incidents and share lessons learned across the Labs.

One example is slips, trips and falls, which consistently rank as the most common injury types. Rather than simply reacting to these incidents, the safety and facility teams mapped out high-risk areas, improved walkway designs and deployed ice melt before storms hit.

Another major risk was ergonomics. The data showed employees who had never completed workstation assessments were more likely to experience musculoskeletal injuries. In response, Sandia’s safety teams launched a campaign to assess and adjust workstations before employees developed chronic pain or injuries.

“Data gave us direction, but it was the people who made it work,” Jon said. “By working together across teams, we weren’t just reacting to injuries — we were preventing them.”

Laura’s and Jon’s teams leaned on partnerships across departments to turn insights into action. Ergonomists, Environment Safety and Health coordinators, medical professionals, safety engineers, facilities and line partners all played critical roles in making these changes a reality.

The human side of safety

Beyond data and policies, something deeper drives Jon and Laura: a personal investment in the well-being of every person who walks through Sandia’s doors.

“I feel honored to be a part of this,” Jon said. “We don’t always get to see the accidents we prevent but knowing that fewer people are getting hurt because of the work we do — it makes it all worth it.”

For Laura, the impact of safety extends beyond the workplace. “When someone avoids an injury, we protect their job, hobbies, family and quality of life,” she said. “That’s what keeps me motivated.”

Both Jon and Laura recognize that safety is more than enforcing rules. It’s about relationships and making good choices.

“Trust is at the core of it all,” Laura said. “Trust that leadership cares, trust that colleagues will look out for one another, and trust that when someone speaks up about a hazard, it will be taken seriously.”

What comes next?

The work isn’t done, and it never will be — because there’s no finish line. Safety is a daily commitment that shapes the way people work and interact.

“We’ve come a long way,” Jon said. “And if we keep this momentum going, we can make Sandia an even safer place for the next generation.”

Achieving the lowest injury rate in Sandia’s history is a reason to celebrate, but it’s also a challenge to keep raising the bar. Vigilance, collaboration and personal dedication made this milestone possible, and they will be the keys to keeping Sandia’s workforce safe for years to come.

Laura and Jon’s journey started with personal experiences, but their mission has become something much bigger. They, along with countless others at Sandia, are shaping a workplace where safety isn’t just something they do — it’s who they are.