Chris Engelbrecht - Looking after safety, cleanups in road accidents

Christopher Engelbrecht is MoDOT's safety and health manager.
Christopher Engelbrecht is MoDOT's safety and health manager.

As safety and health manager at the Missouri Department of Transportation, Christopher Engelbrecht has seen his fair share of road wrecks. And when a big truck is involved, often there's a big mess to clean up.

Recently when tractor trailer spilled its load of logs across the eastbound lanes of U.S. 54, Engelbrecht helped with the effort to clear the area. In the end, MoDOT workers borrowed a grapple from Lincoln University and used it to pick up the logs, moving them temporarily out of the way by dropping them over a fence.

"Our primary responsibility is to let the police department and fire department do what they need to do," Engelbrecht explained. "We manage the back end, to prevent secondary injury crashes."

When wrecks happen, MoDOT's Incident Management Program helps clear the state's roadways. Engelbrecht said he's responded to spills as innocuous as boxes of hot dogs and incidents as dangerous as hazardous waste.

He said it's more important than ever to keep the roads clear and accessible, because so many factories rely upon just-in-time deliveries.

"It's a pretty vital thing," he said.

Engelbrecht - who works for the Central District's offices - started with MoDOT part-time in 1993 as a student and was hired to work full-time as safety manager in 1996.

He also takes care of workers compensation, fleet liability and property liability for the central district.

"MoDOT is self-insured, and we administer the program," he explained.

And he holds training sessions to help workers avoid injuries. "Smashed fingers are the most-common injury," said Engelbrecht, adding that workers also are at risk of being struck by other machinery. "There's just a lot of moving and rotating parts that can get you."

One of the things he loves about his job is its variety.

"Every day is something different," he said.

Engelbrecht is a graduate of Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) in Warrensburg.

"It's one of the few schools in the country that offers degrees in safety management," Engelbrecht said.

He is married to Lori Engelbrecht, a teacher in New Bloomfield. Together, the couple has two children, a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son.