The National Safety Council (NSC) recognized 16 Texas employers for their driver safety accomplishments. NSC gave out the Texas Employer Traffic Safety Awards at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute Traffic Safety Conference in San Antonio to employers that successfully modified their employees’ risky driving behaviors.
The employers all participated in NSC’s Our Driving Concern program, an employer traffic safety program partially funded by the Texas Department of Transportation. Our Driving Concern provides educational materials and training opportunities and to help employers engage their employees in safe driving behaviors.
Award Winners
Four employers received Exemplary awards – the City of Waco, Pioneer Natural Resources, ProFrac Services, and Texas Mutual Insurance Company. Eight received traffic safety awards:
- AFC Transportation,
- City of Austin Public Works Department,
- City of Irving,
- City of San Antonio Office of Risk Management,
- City of San Marcos,
- CPS Energy,
- Jetco Delivery, and
- Star Shuttle & Charter.
Four employers received honorable mentions – Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, City of Frisco, GHD Services, and Saulsbury Industries
NSC’s “Road to Zero”
The Our Driving Concern program in Texas is part of NSC’s “Road to Zero” strategy to eliminate all roadway deaths by 2050. NSC also has an Our Driving Concern employer traffic safety program in Oklahoma.
Resources for employers in the Oklahoma and Texas programs include factsheets and posters, driver safety training for employees, and tailgate talk materials and handouts.
The issues NSC wants employers to address through the Oklahoma and Texas programs include aggressive driving and speeding, alcohol and drug-impaired driving, and distracted or drowsy driving.
Accomplishments by this year’s Texas Employer Traffic Safety Awards recipients include:
- The City of Austin Public Works Department trained all of its drivers in defensive driving methods and saw a 50% reduction in preventable collisions;
- Star Shuttle & Charter’s safety training and ongoing safety challenges resulted in an 80% reduction in preventable crashes during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same time in 2017; and
- Texas Mutual committed to a strict phone-free driving policy, shifting from a workplace culture of constant connectivity to one that allows employees to safely disconnect when they are behind the wheel, and saw a 61% decrease in preventable crashes.
Ongoing Transportation Safety Concerns
Employers and federal and state governments have ongoing concerns about transportation safety. Transportation incidents, especially motor vehicle crashes, are responsible for high numbers of fatalities and injuries.
Even outside the transportation industry, roadway incidents remain a top cause of workplace deaths.
The National Transportation Safety Board has 267 recommendations for Congress, employers, federal regulatory agencies, state legislatures and agencies, and vehicle manufacturers to address transportation safety problems. American and Canadian regulatory agencies want employers in the motor carrier industry to establish programs to control driver fatigue.
The National Safety Council is a not-for-profit organization that includes occupational safety and health professionals but also advocates for safety in the home and on roadways. NSC also organizes the National Safety Congress & Expo, an annual professional conference and trade show. This year’s event is September 9-12 at the San Diego Convention Center.