Weekly Safety Newsletter – Issue #2
| EHS Corner: Well, our nice clean record over the last 50 days has abruptly ended. One of our vehicles collided with another smaller vehicle on the freeway. Thankfully, there were no injuries at the time of the incident and only a little damage to the truck and a bit more to the other vehicle. How often does this happen in your company or business? It happens way more than we care to admit right? Today’s newsletter is focusing on all of the distractions on our freeways and roads. |
Always Know Your Surroundings
Not Your Usual Commute
We all have made some mistakes while driving. Thankfully, in this accident, no one was currently injured. When you choose to enter a vehicle and drive, you need to make sure your head is in the game. Ever hear the phrase, “head on a swivel”? That’s what you need to be doing! It’s also a great idea to really get to know the vehicle you will be driving.
Every vehicle on the road has blind spots. It’s very important you understand and know where those blind spots are. If you have any issues while driving that could distract you prior to a lane change, it’s a good idea to triple-check before changing lanes.
In this case, our driver lost sight of the vehicle and assumed he had either passed the vehicle or the vehicle had moved on because the vehicle was in his blind spot. Never assume! Our drivers need to have a continuous focus on the task they’ve been assigned. It is no easy task to drive a big rig in heavy traffic.
A quick Google search on truck accidents and you’ll see why it is so important to keep your focus while driving. In this case, everyone involved was very lucky. Speeds were slow enough that the vehicle slid sideways and did not tumble and flip. Here are some statistics to help you get a better understanding of what is reported in WA & across the United States.
| Highest Deaths In 16 Years |
Who would have thought we’d have a rise in deaths on our roads coming out of the pandemic? Well, unfortunately, I knew it was coming. Nearly 43,000 people lost their lives on U.S. roads in 2021. That’s the highest recorded number in 16 years. I think this is due to a compounding effect the pandemic and phones have had in our locked-down environments. Have you noticed the amount of Karens on the road these days? So many aggressive drivers mixed with drivers who are distracted. As I drive down the roads here in my hometown, I make my wife count the number of people on their phones and it scares the crap out of me to think roughly 6 out of 10 cars driving by are on their phones. |
| How Do We Fix Our Distracted Drivers? |
This is going to be a tough pill to swallow, but lose the phone! There are many other distractions in our cars, but the phone is by far the biggest problem we have now. If we are going to change the trends of rising deaths on our freeways, then we are going to have to do something about how people can use their phones in vehicles. I think this is a pretty simple fix. Require software in phones that disable the phone from being used while driving. I was raised without phones in cars. It’s nice to be out of touch for a while and not have to constantly worry about what’s going on at work or even at home. Honestly, if we locked out these phones, we’d have a lot fewer Karens on the road trying to run us into a ditch. Until we can get to this point, I think all parents and businesses should protect their kids and employees by enforcing no phone policies in their vehicles. What is your opinion? Leave me a comment and let’s discuss this further… |
| WSDOT Truck Statistics: |
Around 500,000 trucking accidents occur each year in the United States. About 5,000 of those end in death. According to FMCSA, these numbers are expected to rise. They state that the pandemic caused lighter traffic than usual. On average, there are roughly 2.5 million trucks on the roads in the United States. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), there were 111,416 vehicle crashes in 2019. More than 9,000 resulted in injury and 507 fatalities. Out of the 111,416 total crashes, 162 involved heavy trucks or tractor-trailers. While these numbers are low for our industry, they come with a heavy price. Trucks involved in accidents cause a lot of damage. |
Thanks for hanging out today and reading the Newsletter today. Have a safe day and we will see you in the next issue. If you have any topics you’d like us to write about, leave a comment and we will work to get your topic included.