“Safety should not be a competitive advantage.”
That’s the message I keep in mind every time I visit groups that represent employers, like the Network of Employers for Transportation Safety (NETS) which focuses on highway safety, or when I meet with the executives at individual companies, who may use many different modes of transportation for their businesses.
You are on a gurney, being wheeled toward an ambulance, past a burning car, a man in handcuffs, police officers, firefighters and other injured people. Suddenly, your condition takes a turn for the worse. You are being given CPR. An oxygen mask is placed over your face. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t look good.
Planes, trains and automobiles…and drones…were frequently in the news this year. Accident investigations found fatigue, substance misuse and bad decisions behind a number of transportation-related accidents. Regulators attempted to keep pace with the development of autonomous vehicles and the growing popularity of drones. Here are the top transportation safety stories of 2017.
Harsh criticism from NTSB after fatal train derailment
November 15, 2017
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the April 3, 2016, derailment of Amtrak train 89 near Chester, Pennsylvania was caused by deficient safety management across many levels of Amtrak and the resultant lack of a clear, consistent and accepted vision for safety. A backhoe operator and a track supervisor were killed, and 39 people were injured when Amtrak train 89, traveling on the Northeast Corridor from Philadelphia to Washington on track 3, struck a backhoe at about 7:50 a.m.
Just after noon on March 29, a pickup truck crossed the center line of a rural road in South Texas and slammed into a church bus, killing 13 members of the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels. A police report said the 20-year-old pickup driver, who survived, had taken medication and was texting.
Forget about student loan debt. There's a far more serious debt that occurs earlier in a young person's life, one that - according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - could endanger their safety, along with the safety of those sharing the road with them.
The dark, misty highway made the digital boards hard to ignore. They are also visible from a greater distance. You notice them sooner. Which of course is the point of outdoor advertising. But I thought, this seems like another form of distracted driving.
The unofficial “kickoff” to summer is almost here. While everyone should have fun this coming Memorial Day weekend, it’s important to stay safe and out of the ER.
On March 20-23, 2017, thirteen participants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attended the 10th International Conference on Managing Fatigue, in San Diego, California. This year’s conference was the first held in the U.S. since 2009, and was attended by over 260 scientists and industry experts from around the world.
Helmets and high visibility clothing were no help to a group of bicyclists when a Michigan man who was under the influence of several drugs got behind the wheel of his pickup truck on June 7, 2016.
