Collisions result in enormous human, social and economic costs, and represent one of the most significant threats to society today.
Traffic-related motor vehicle crashes are the leading causes of work-related injury and death. They reduce our workforce by more than three workers each day.


Collision Prevention Objectives ..
Develop collision prevention programs and intervention policies for implementation by employers that will
reach both high-risk employees and the general workforce targeting driver compliance with traffic laws
(speed limits, impaired, reckless) and safe driving practices.
Implement workplace safety programs at worksites. Through work site seminars, assist employees to improve
on the job driver compliance with traffic laws (speed limits, impaired, reckless driving).

THE ECONOMIC COST OF CRASHES

The Cost to Society:

• Traffic-related injuries are the leading causes of all injury death in America. Every NINE SECONDS,
  someone is injured in traffic crash and every 13 MINUTES someone is killed.
• Traffic-related injuries are the LEADING cause of death for children and young adults ages six to twenty-seven.
• Medicare, Medicaid and other taxpayers funded sources pay 24% of costs for traffic crash victims.
• Crash costs skyrocket when vehicle occupants are not wearing seat belts because unbelted crash
  victims sustain more severe injuries and more fatalities than belted victims. Belted victims
  average 60 to 80% lower hospital costs than unbelted victims.

The Cost to Employers:

• In one year, off-the-job crash injuries cost employers over $14 billion.
• Employer health care (medical) spending on crash injuries is nearly $9 billion every year.
  Another $9 billion is spent on sick leave and life and disability insurance for crash victims.

Drowsy Driving:

Every year, falling asleep while driving is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 40,000
injuries, and 1550 fatalities. These crashes happen between the hours of midnight and 6am,
involve a single vehicle and a sober driver traveling alone, with the car leaving the roadway without
any attempt to avoid the crash.

These figures underestimate the true level of involvement of drowsiness because they do not
include crashes involving daytime hours, multiple vehicles, alcohol, passengers, or evasive maneuvers.

Efforts needed !!
The process of determining whether an occurrence was preventable can help minimize both the
negative impact on those involved, and the probability of recurring events.
The environment in which these crashes occur is complex and may not be as controllable as
other workplaces. Uncontrollable factors include aggressive or impaired drivers and motorists who
ignore the dangers of sharing the road with commercial vehicles.

Injury prevention and control technologies such as safety belts, air bags, daytime running lights, and
improved vehicles design were developed to improve general public safety; but they may also be
applicable to workers whose jobs involve driving or travel by motor vehicle.

Prevention efforts should include a combination of education, enforcement, and engineering controls.
Companies with large fleets of motor vehicle can provide unique opportunities for researchers to study
injury prevention strategies to begin answering the many remaining questions about risk factors and
effective methods of injury prevention.

The 3 SECOND RULE

When the vehicle ahead of you passes a certain point. Such as a sign, count "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three."
This takes about 3 seconds. If you pass the same point before you finish counting, then...
YOU ARE FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY!!!!...

WHAT CAN YOU DO??

Establish and enforce standards of driving conduct for those employees who drive while on the job.
Drivers who exhibit aggressive driving behaviors are not a good reflection on you or your business.

Avoid confrontation with employees if you know they will be driving soon.
Allow employees time to cool off before they have to drive. Allow employees times to travel between
job sites to decrease the likelihood of speeding, running red lights, etc.

Educate employees about how to react when they encounter an aggressive driver.
The best defense is to not retaliate and if possible, move away from the other vehicle.

Establish and enforce a company policy requiring seat belt use among all vehicle occupants in all seating
positions while traveling for business purposes - even if your employees use their private vehicles,
taxis or rental cars.

Employers should establish on the job driving policies including...

• SAFETY BELT POLICY
• ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE POLICY
• CELL PHONE USE POLICY

PAY ATTENTION !!... Safe Driving is a Full-Time job

Distracted driving is estimated to be a factor in between 25 to 50 percent of all traffic crashes - that`s
between 4,000 and 8,000 crashes every day.

Distracted driving is the presense of anything that can distract a driver`s physical and mental attention
from the driving task.

Driving instructors estimate that a driver makes an average of 200 decisions during every mile driven.