The Safety Person of the Year Award recognizes an employee of a member railroad who works with management on effective safety programs, exhibits a high degree of safety awareness and contributes off-duty time to activities promoting safety awareness in the community. In other words, a safety person is someone who has multiple jobs or responsibilities, with safety being part of what they do.
The Safety Person of the Year is awarded to an employee of a member railroad, except those considered to be professional safety management employees, who demonstrate these criteria.