Thomas (TJ) Lyons, CRIS, OHST, CSP

Mr. Lyons, who writes on construction safety for IRMI.com, is a safety professional working for DPR Construction. He supports field teams and operations in the United States from Malta and New York.  

Board certified as an Occupational Health and Safety Technologist and Certified Safety Professional, he is proud to have taken some of these skills to his local community. A past assistant chief, New York adjutant fire instructor (hazardous materials), emergency medical technician, and still a volunteer firefighter, he sees the need to bring safety from the field to the home as often as possible.

In 2018, Mr. Lyons was honored with the IRMI Words of Wisdom (WOW) Award. The WOW Award recognizes a speaker who has made an outstanding contribution to the IRMI Construction Risk Conference as well as demonstrating exceptional presentation skills and freely sharing practical tips and strategies.

In 2001, Mr. Lyons was awarded the IRMI Gary E. Bird Horizon Award for his efforts in implementing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Voluntary Protection Program on the first construction project in the state of New York. He has also presented at the IRMI Construction Risk Conference.

Mr. Lyons was a past chapter writer for the American Society of Testing of Materials and for the recent American Society of Safety Engineers’ Construction Safety Management and Engineering, vol. 1 and vol. 2. He is the past president of the Hudson River Valley Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. His safety passion is focused on working with people and the idea of preventing incidents through the smarter design of the structure being built and the way the building is built. Rather than install roof anchors on a flat roof and hope everyone will remember to attach their fall protection, build common parapets around the roof to eliminate the fall itself, implementing simple steps that he calls "design intervention."