Before You Hit the Road: Hit the Books

According to the National Safety Council, more than 35,000 Americans die each year in traffic crashes. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that aggressive driving is a factor in more than half of all fatal crashes—and one type of aggressive driving, speeding, is involved in more than 30 percent of fatal crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Are your drivers at risk of aggressive driving and excessive speed? How can you slow them down?

Drivers who do their homework—checking travel distances and road conditions—before a trip are less likely to engage in aggressive driving behaviors that can increase crash risk. So, make sure your drivers hit the books before they hit the road.

Failure to Plan Is Planning to Crash?

Sometimes, workers will drive too fast and too aggressively—changing lanes frequently, cutting off other drivers, running yellow lights—because they are running late. In order to prevent drivers trying to “make up time” by driving aggressively, make sure that you and your drivers do their research.

Before they hit the road, make sure they:

• Leave enough travel time. Both the employer and the employee have a role to play in this. Employers should ensure that workers have sufficient time to reach their travel destination without having to hurry. Workers, too, should know how much time they need to get to their destination without rushing, and they should make an effort to leave plenty of time.

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• Plan the route. Make sure that workers check shortly before they depart for potential travel delays caused by road construction, serious crashes, or weather conditions. If one of these things could delay the trip significantly, either let the worker leave early or give them the chance to select an alternate route.

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• Prioritize safety. If drivers do run into an unexpected delay—a crash, a work zone that was not publicized, a pop-up thunderstorm—be accommodating. Tell the workers to pull off the road at the first opportunity when they know that they will be significantly late, and let both you and someone at their destination know of the expected delay. That way, they won’t feel pressured to arrive on time.

Need more planning tips to enhance safety? Plan to check out Safety.BLR.com®.