Insult to Injury

Too often I review a vehicle accident that also results in a totally unnecessary injury for the truck driver. Personal injuries-or worse, fatalities-that occur when a professional driver fails to use his seatbelt hurt in more ways than one.

The costs associated with physical damage, vehicle downtime, increased insurance costs, lost productivity, and vehicle rentals simply add insult to a senseless injury.

What’s a safety manager to do? A construction worker doing high work is required by law to use a safety harness, and there are site supervisors to ensure that workers comply. A racecar driver uses a seatbelt and helmet to protect himself. A responsible parent would not let his child ride a bike without a safety helmet. Many job sites require workers to wear protective gear prior to entering their premises; even a visitor gets a hard hat when he enters the site.

Safety managers in this industry don’t have the luxury of looking over their drivers’ shoulder all the time, and let’s face it, few would want to be constantly reminding grown men and women to use their seatbelts.
I learned a long time ago that nagging drivers into wearing a seatbelt-or even requiring them to do so through company policy-isn’t enough. You have to show drivers why wearing a seatbelt is important.

Facts and figures help. Seatbelt use in this country is high, relative to other places: 90.1% of drivers belt up, according to the latest federal annual roadside survey. Transport Canada estimates the use of seatbelts has saved 11,690 lives since 1991.

But numbers on a page really don’t drive home the message like good, real-life examples of drivers who didn’t belt up and suffered the consequences.

I’m sure you’ve got a few. Here are two true stories I use to sell the use of seatbelts:

A step-van driver was driving through a mall parking lot at less than 10 kilometres an hour. It was a hot day and he had his driver side sliding door wide open. He hit a speed bump while he was leaning looking at a store address.

Between the bump and the pull of the steering wheel, the driver was launched out of his seat and landed on the pavement. He then watched his van continue to roll and crash into some parked vehicles causing approximately $10,000 in property damage.

The driver was lucky: he only suffered a few scrapes and cuts. Think about what could have happened. The runaway van could just as easily have rolled over a couple of pedestrians or even the driver as he lay on the road.

A truck driver was travelling on a four-lane divided city road (two lanes southbound, two lanes northbound) in a commercial part of town. His speed was about 70 km/h, and he was in the left lane heading north.

A car directly ahead of the truck driver was stopped and signaling a left turn. By the time he noticed the car, it was too late to brake and stop his vehicle. He knew there was a car to his right, so he couldn’t move there. He saw that no one was coming toward him in the oncoming traffic lane, so he chose to move left.

Unfortunately, as he moved to his left he hit a small concrete lane divider. The jolt ejected him from the driver’s seat to the passenger side of the cab. When he came to, the driver was inside the customer-service area of a muffler shop. Thank God it was a Sunday and the shop was closed. The damage was considerable, though: $100,000-plus in claims and the failure of the driver’s owner-operator business.

Seatbelts save lives and allow drivers to stay in control and reduce risk. If your drivers don’t believe the statistics, and they don’t believe it in their hearts, a bite of reality might help them tighten up their attitude toward safety.