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S A F E T Y Safety is No Accident E A safe driving program should stress defensive tactics and daily truck inspections BY S T EP HEN B E N NE T T XPECT THE UNEXPECTED WHEN IT COMES TO THE BEHAVIOR of other drivers, and don't neglect pre- and post-trip truck inspections. Those are top tips from two experts on safety of fleet vehicle operations. Michael Baker, director of marketing and sales for Smith & Solomon, a company in Linden, N.J., that teaches defen- sive driving to truck drivers, said owners and managers are often so busy running their core business that they can eas- ily be distracted from regulatory developments that apply to their trucks and drivers. "It's definitely not something to ignore," he said, referring specifically to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) program known as CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability). Smith & Solomon performs mock "audits" for companies, alerts them to short- comings in their compliance and advises them how to bring their trucks, drivers and record-keeping up to par with the program's requirements. State associations are also good sources of information on how to keep up with the regulations, Baker added. "It's a good thing to educate drivers on regulations," Baker said, "because sometimes the drivers think it's the company that's coming down on them"—not realizing that the company is required by law to comply. Another key to safe vehicle operations is to conduct pre- and post-trip inspections of trucks, said Sgt. John Begin of the New Hampshire State Police. "The first thing is doing that very comprehensive pre-trip that is difficult to do day in, day out," Begin said. The difficulty is a matter of discipline because if inspections turn up nothing day after day, drivers can become lax about continuing to do them. That's a mistake, Begin said. Maintenance and repair issues can become evident in the span of a day, and if the inspection is skipped, the problem will go undetected. "Your truck tells you a story, if you're listening," he said. Safe driving practices complement regular truck inspections to make a complete safety package, said Begin, who is currently assigned to the Troop G Commercial Motor Vehicle Enforcement Unit of the New Hampshire State Police. Defensive driving by commercial drivers is essential, Begin said, because passenger vehicle drivers often can't be counted on to take the same precautions. He cited statistics that he said were collected by the state of New Hampshire on 28 SEPTEMBER 2012 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com accidents that involved commercial vehicles and had resulted in fatalities. In 2011, of in-state accidents involving commercial vehicles that resulted in one or more fatalities, 78% were found to have been caused by passenger vehicle operators. In 2010, 100% of such accidents in New Hampshire were found to have been the fault of passenger vehicle operators; and in 2009, 85% were caused by passenger vehicle operators. "So it's overwhelmingly the fault of the passenger vehicle [drivers] in these fatal crashes," Begin said. Most often, accidents are the result of the passenger vehicle operator "doing something unsafely around the truck," he said. "People do all kinds of crazy stuff when they're going down the road.'" In addition, Begin said of accident causes, "A lot of them are center line encroachment cases—where the [passenger] vehicle crosses over the center line." Reasons vary for such encroachments, but he noted, "The more I do this [accident investigation] the more I find that the biggest issue out there is distracted drivers." Truck drivers too can fall prey to distractions. "Most commercial drivers really do a good job," Begin said, pointing out that they drive in all kinds of conditions and many have operated vehicles hundreds of thousands of miles. The FMCSA prohibits cell phone usage by commercial drivers unless they have a hands-free device. But for truck drivers, there are many potential causes of distraction besides cell phones. "Anything that distracts the driver from looking where he's going and from being observant is something that is going to increase the likelihood of a safety related incident," Begin said. For truck drivers, the stakes are much higher. It is wrong for everyday passenger car drivers to allow themselves to be distracted, Begin said, "but it's even more egregiously wrong for the guy behind [the wheel] of that truck. He is the profes- sional driver." Begin wondered whether dispatch systems could be shut down while drivers are operating their vehicles. "Some trucks have text devices that send a message from dis- patch," Begin commented. "That thing beeps and what does the driver do? Well, he wants to see what the message is."