Standard Procedures

It’s something no fleet owner or manager ever wants to face. But the reality is, trucking can be a dangerous vocation, and fatal accidents and serious injuries do happen.

Each province has its own individual rules to govern the safety of workers employed by trucking companies. Some provinces recognize trucking as a distinct industry, while others lump it into a broad category like “transportation” or “construction.” Regardless, there are specific provisions within each province’s occupational health and safety regulations about how fatalities and serious injuries are to be reported and investigated.

In Ontario, where the mock trial took place, the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires the employer to contact the Ministry of Labour immediately following an accident, to file a written report, and to preserve the accident scene until given permission by the inspector (except when a life is at stake, there is the potential for further damage, or an essential public service must be maintained). “If someone directly or indirectly tampers (with items at the scene) charges can be laid against that person,” explains Carmine Benedetti, chairman of the Transportation Health & Safety Association of Ontario driver trainer council. “If found guilty, he faces up to a $25,000 fine or a year in prison.”

Benedetti offers the following advice to trucking managers who want to reduce their legal exposure in the event of a serious accident onsite:

1. Learn the rules. Review workplace safety rules in your jurisdiction and make sure you know how to abide by them. Including accident-reporting procedures in your company’s employee handbook, and make sure all your workers are aware of them.

2. Don’t rely on the police to do your reporting for you. Benedetti says that in the event of a serious or fatal accident, the ambulance dispatchers will usually call the police, who in turn will notify a workplace safety inspector.

That, however, does not relieve you from contacting the inspector yourself or dismiss you from filing a report, despite the fact the police may have also done so. If the police do not show up immediately following the accident, the inspector will decide if there is a basis for criminal charges and a reason to get the police involved.

3. Prevent injuries. Benedetti says employers need to watch for the telltale signs of an accident or injury in the making.

Near misses tend to go unnoticed because there is never a catastrophic result. “Often, near misses are just a matter of inches, and they’re a sign that it’s only a matter of time that someone gets hurt,” Benedetti says. Review your maintenance reports, looking for indications that trucks and freight-handling equipment are wearing down. “If there is a reoccurring situation of something breaking down,” Benedetti adds, “that is also something that needs to be looked at more closely.”

First-aid reports foretell serious injury, says Benedetti, especially if a group of people in one area or doing essentially the same job repeatedly get hurt or sick.

4. Consider the “human” factor. Finally, Benedetti says, although many companies create plans to deal with a fatality from a regulatory standpoint, few prepare to manage the “human” factor. “You need someone to help other employees deal with a stressful situation,” he says. “There’s also the notification process. Who’s going to be responsible for notifying the family?”