John Dickens, vice president and director of safety for Tidewater Construction in Norfolk, says workplace safety is about more than just cutting costs. "The goal is to send the employee home at the end of the day with money in his pocket and all his fingers and toes," he says. "The human factor is why we have a safety program. Safety is the right thing to do, and it's also something that you can make money at."

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The biggest problems with workplace safety come from the smallest companies, says Dick Crawford, the state's director of safety compliance. From 1995 to 1998, almost two-thirds of workplace fatalities happened at companies with fewer than 50 workers. The smaller the company, the bigger the problem: 35 percent of fatalities occurred in businesses with fewer than 10 workers, Crawford says.

"A lot of these companies think they can't afford to be safety conscious," he says. "They're pushing to get a job done and they just cut corners." The truth of the matter, he says, is that they can't afford not to make safety a priority.

Vermillion says there is a perception that small companies don't get as much attention from state inspectors. "We believe if the state could get more money into voluntary enforcement, it would help more than anything else."

Companies with fewer than 250 employees can get up to a year's worth of free consulting from the state to develop health and safety programs, says Nancy Jakubec, the state's director of cooperative programs. Employers must agree to fix any problems and involve employees in developing a safety plan. "The employee involvement is what makes it," she says. "Their morale goes up."

Larger companies can draft a plan and submit it to the department for review. If the plan is approved, the department sends a team of consultants to the company site for a week-long review and sessions with workers. "We can learn what the program really is and make sure it works right," she says. Companies that complete the process get their names off the state's inspection list. The process is time-consuming and can only be done by companies with a full-time safety director. The companies recoup the time spent through lower worker compensation costs and fewer work delays. So far, eight companies have been through the program, including Georgia Pacific in Emporia, General Electric in Salem and Winchester, GE Fanuc in Charlottesville and Lockheed Martin in Manassas.

The goal is to reduce the risk of accidents, says department commissioner Barr. "The best way to do that is to work with them, to use our expertise to show them how to do that rather than go with a hammer."

Sometimes, Barr's department will target a particular industry with problems. Last fall, state and federal agencies -- including the Occupational Health and Safety Administration -- organized training sessions for loggers in western Virginia and West Virginia after a string of 16 fatal accidents in the region in a two-year period. Loggers who completed the training were promised a reduced penalty for any violations that might turn up in future inspections. Jim Mann, the Department of Labor and Industry representative in Roanoke, says the program must have been effective "because we haven't had any [fatalities] out there so far."

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Every so often, says Dickens of Tidewater Construction, company employees will take off on their own to start construction businesses. Many times they come back a few years later, a little wiser. "They say, 'I got all the work I could do, but at the end of the year, I'd had a couple of accidents and I couldn't pay my insurance premiums,'" he says. "We've seen it over and over again."

Insurance premiums are largely based on two factors: how dangerous the job is, and the company's track record. In a competitive market, Dickens says, companies with a poor safety record lose.

That's particularly true in industries where companies bid for work, says Mike Weber, a regional manager in the Richmond office of Liberty Mutual Insurance. Companies generally pay the same for labor and supplies, whereas insurance -- already one of the biggest items in the budget -- is the only variable. "If they can't keep these costs in check, they're not going to get as much work."

Insurance companies that offer workers compensation policies have expertise on risk management gleaned from the safety records of thousands of similar businesses, Weber says. They can tell companies where the problem areas are and how to avoid them. "The problem is, a business may not act on it."

Tidewater Construction was founded in 1932 and today has 750 employees. It has taken on some challenging jobs, such as replacing the Coleman Memorial Bridge across the York River in Gloucester County. Two years ago, Tidewater built the bridge in Norfolk and floated it into place. The company had 12 days to install it. They worked around the clock and finished in nine days without a serious injury -- earning a bonus of more than $1 million.

Bigger companies with experience in workplace safety can have a ripple effect by offering training to smaller firms and by requiring subcontractors to follow safe practices. Dickens tells other companies that the first step to building a good safety plan is to take it seriously. "A lot of people consider safety a pain in the butt. They take somebody who's going to retire, or somebody's son-in-law, and make him safety director. And they don't get the returns."

Tidewater's safety program is constantly updated. The company recently added training on hazardous materials to teach workers about exposure risks. It's a firing offense for workers to ignore such rules as wearing seat belts while driving company vehicles, or for not using fall-prevention equipment whenever they're more than six feet off the ground.

Dickens says there is more to fear than just higher insurance costs. "There's what I call 1-800-ATTORNEYS. If we screw up and get somebody hurt, those guys are going to maximize the situation. So the deal is to ... have the safety record, not get people hurt, and then you don't have to worry about guys like that. And you're not playing Russian roulette with the profits of the company."

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On a February morning last year, Mildred Covington drove to her job at a brake manufacturing company in Stafford County where she'd worked for 20 years.