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Welcome to Our Driving Concern: Texas Employer Traffic Safety Program, a program of the National Safety Council funded by the Texas Department of Transportation. |
Our purpose is to educate employers on the impact crashes will have on their businesses and ways to help prevent crashes from happening. Motor vehicle crashes are the No. 1 cause of unintentional workplace deaths in the United States, and most of these crashes are preventable. Our program provides a variety of resources for employers to help prevent these crashes and their bottom line.
Our Driving Concern focuses on four areas where measures can be taken to prevent crashes—distracted driving, impaired driving, aggressive driving and passenger restraint. Simple and easy steps can be taken by employers to make sure these areas of concern do not lead to unnecessary costs to their businesses.
NHTSA reports that employers in Texas alone spend $3.5 billion every year as a result of on-the-job and off-the-job traffic injuries.
Off-the-job crashes are especially costly, accounting for 80 percent of employer crash-related health fringe benefit costs and 92 percent of employer crash-related health care costs.
All of the information presented here is intended to help promote safe practices on the road and is a valuable resource in educating your co-workers, friends, and family. This year more than 3,000 people will be killed on Texas roadways, so share these resources with those closest to you and hopefully none of you will become yet another statistic.
Our next webinar, "Eliminating Driver Distractions: Employer Cell Phone Policies Save Lives and Cut Costs," will take place Wednesday, February 15. This webinar will share the research behind the dangers of cognitive distraction, as well as the safety and liability risks to employers and the resources available to educate employees and implement cell phone policies. Register for the webinar now!
The most recent Our Driving Concern webinars, "Alcohol & Injury: Use Employer Interventions to Promote Safety and Protect Your Business" and "Motor Vehicle Incidents: A Cost to Business," can now be viewed in the webinar archive. These presentations by some of Texas' leading traffic safety profesionals are informational tools any employer would benefit from watching.
The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency responsible for promoting traffic safety and investigating accidents, recently recommended a total ban on cell phone use by drivers, except in emergency circumstances. The recommended ban includes all portable electronic and hands-free devices, as even hands-free technology does not prevent cognitive distraction. The Board also recommends high visibility enforcement and increased public awareness campaigns to support these bans.
The NTSB came to this conclusion after the investigation of a multi-vehicle crash involving a driver texting behind the wheel, which resulted in the death of two people and 38 injured children on a school bus. The National Safety Council applauds this recommendation, as estimates show that 1.3 million crashes involve drivers distracted by cell phones each year.
A new AAA report compares the financial damage of traffic crashes to the costs of traffic congestion in 99 different urban areas and finds that the average cost of a traffic crash is $6 million. The report also states that the cost of crashes ($299.5 billion) is three times that of the cost of congestion ($97.7 billion). These figures are based on estimates from the Federal Highway Administration and include the following costs: property damage, lost earnings, loss of household activities, medical costs, emergency services, travel delays, vocational rehabilitation, lost time at work, administrative costs, legal costs, pain and lost quality of life.
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Click on Careless Carl to make your own Our Driving Concern character at nsc.org/safedrivers! |