Monthly Archives: April 2018

We constantly preach that driving a vehicle is the most dangerous thing your employees.  Of course, our focus is usually on the risks associated with driving amongst traffic, cyclists and pedestrians.,  In this case, a city employee was essentially off-roading on the beach when he ran over a woman.  Our defensive driving protocol, LLLC™, which teaches Look Ahead, Look Around, Leave Room and Communicate may have prevented this accident.

As risk managers, we don’t jump to conclusions.  We base our opinions on facts.  In this case, we don’t have many facts.  We have a single-vehicle collision ending in a fatality.  Could better training have helped?  We just don’t know.  This 72 year old veteran employee in the water department may have fallen asleep at the wheel.  He may have been distracted or even texting.  Or he may have had a heart attack or stroke before running off the road.  We don’t know the circumstances.

Sadly, we can’t prevent every collision, but through better safety education and world-class defensive driving

The statistics are headed in the wrong direction!  But it goes deeper than statistics.  We’re talking about lives.

We exist to make the world a safer place.  Not because of the statistics or financial burden on the tax payers, but because we care about the people.  And, it’s not just road crew workers.  It’s their wives, husbands, parents, children, coworkers and friends.  One fatality effects hundreds of people.  We support the more effective engineering controls to mitigate risk, such as:

• Longitudinal barriers (guardrails between live traffic and road crews)
• Truck-mounted crash attenuators
• Clear warning signs at 500 and 300 feet

As a safety professional reading just the tiny bit of information provided, my first two questions are:

1. Why were there three passengers in a solid waste truck?
2. Why were all three ejected?  I have that answer.  No seat belts.

Basic safety training would have prevented the fatalities.  Our outcome-based defensive driving would have prevented the entire incident.  An ounce of prevention provides a pound of cure.

This risk is real.  The numbers are sobering.  Anytime we have a pedestrian worker in live traffic, we have huge exposure to loss.  Please be sure to use ALL of these precautions:

1. Warning signs at 1000 and 300 feet before the work area.
2. A large vehicle such as a class 6 or 7 truck, with warning signs, blocking work crews from a direct strike.
3. Reflective vests.
4. Specific instructions on performing work in the midst of live traffic in the safest manner possible.
5. Outcome-based training on how to remain vigilant and aware of the surroundings.

As you can see in the photograph, the crew was using the boom of an auger truck to prop up an electrical pole while the electrician worked on the light.  As always, well-meaning employees getting hurt while taking short cuts to get things done faster, rather than safer.