Stay Safe This Memorial Day: Buckle Up
Parades, picnics and family gatherings are commonplace on Memorial Day Weekend. The unofficial start of summer likely will begin with coworkers, friends and loved ones packing as much in as possible during the long holiday weekend. Here’s how you can encourage them to pack “safety” in their tote bags, too, as the roads in Ohio and across the nation will be crowded.
More traffic increases the potential for crashes. Seat belt use is the first line of defense in crashes. From 2018 to 2022, Ohio averaged 2,200 serious injury crashes related to unbelted occupants. That’s more than five serious injuries every day. Can you spare 30 seconds for safety with your team? Share this video to raise awareness of the importance of buckling up – every time and in every seat:
Get more free resources from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and be an active safety ambassador during the annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign. Resources include talking points, fact sheets and ready-made social media graphics to share on your own channels.
Have fun with seat belt safety, too. See if you can answer these questions and dispel these seat belt myths. Be sure to share these simple tests with others, too. Get started here:
Let’s make this Memorial Day one to remember — for all the right reasons!
Celebrate Safety, Reinforce Your Commitment in June
June is National Safety Month. Throughout the month, Ohio employers can actively engage in various initiatives to ensure the wellbeing of their employees:
June 1-8: Safety Engagement
Employers can build a culture of safety through regular communication of safety tips and organizing safety training sessions. Try hosting a National Safety Month kickoff event for employees, like a breakfast, lunch and learning session, or safety fair. Share free traffic safety resources from NHTSA, or call attention to Secure Your Load Day on June 6.
June 9-15: Roadway Safety
Focus on measures such as carpooling, public transportation and seat belt use. Tap into our free online micro-learning courses to boost your education and training efforts. Employers can offer incentives for successful employee completion of courses. Check out the free courses here!
June 16-22
Risk Reduction: Work to mitigate risk by advocating against distracted driving, conducting regular vehicle maintenance checks and offering flexible work arrangements to reduce unnecessary travel. Introduce Check to Protect, the place for employees to check their personal vehicles for safety recalls and the place to do bulk checks on company vehicles.
June 23-30
Slips, Trips & Falls: Be sure to identify potential hazards, check that proper signage is in place and promote safe walking practices at your location. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers employer/employee specific handouts, posters, quizzes, fact sheets, stickers and T-shirts to support these efforts.
By dedicating each week to specific safety themes, you can effectively reinforce your commitment to workplace safety and contribute to a safer environment for all employees. Get your National Safety Month resources from the National Safety Council.
Upcoming Free Webinar Sessions
Our Driving Concern Webinar: Covering the Facts – Injury Facts Employers Should be Paying Attention To
June 11, 2024 – 10 to 10:30 a.m. CST
In 1921, when the National Safety Council published its first statistical summary, An Analysis of Public Accidents, there was no centralized source for injury statistics in the U.S. Over the years, the statistical injury summaries published by NSC added information on a variety of topics that are beneficial to employers.
Join Ken Kolosh, manager of statistics at the National Safety Council, as he explores the latest roadway injury and fatality trends using the Injury Facts website. The site allows you to find the safety data you need – whether that is a basic overview or detailed, interactive charts and tables. Ken will share current crash rate trends and guide you through how to explore the data on your own.
Our Driving Concern Webinar: Workplace Impairment Training
August 6, 2024 – 8:30 a.m.to noon CST
Can you identify an impaired employee in the workplace? We offer a staff-development training course to aid your safety leaders in doing just that. Free Workplace Impairment Training explores the effects of impairment on driving and workplace performance. During each section of the training, participants will be directed to free resources designed to help raise awareness of risks associated with impairment and to promote safe behaviors. The goal is to help safety leaders better recognize and respond to these six root causes of impairment:
- Alcohol
- Cannabis
- Opioid pain relief medications, including fentanyl.
- Prescription drugs, over-the-counter meds and multi-substance use
- Fatigue
- Mental health
Lifesavers Photo Booth
Program managers April Ramos and Tracy LeMaire, and senior program manager Katie Mueller represented the Our Driving Concern program at the 2024 Lifesavers Conference in Denver. Did you miss them? You can always contact our Ohio program manager, Tracy LeMaire at [email protected].
Employer NARCAN® Resources
Does your employer keep NARCAN® in the company first aid kit? Overdoses remain the leading cause of unintentional death in the U.S. and account for nearly 10% of all workplace fatalities. The National Safety Council is ramping up its commitment to combatting overdoses in the workplace through the launch of several new initiatives. Aimed at raising awareness and supporting access to lifesaving resources, the new initiatives include a free opioid overdose e-learning, an online workplace wellbeing hub, and the availability of bulk online purchasing of NARCAN® Nasal Spray for employers nationwide.
Upcoming Events & Free Resources
Ohio Traffic Safety Summit 2024
May 20 & 21 at Ohio Union at Ohio State University
ONIC Law Enforcement Drug Summit
May 29 & 30 at Ohio Union at Ohio State University
2nd International Conference and Peer Exchange on Roadside Safety
June 23-26 in Orlando, FL