Turkey Time, But Safety First!
Alcohol-impaired driving education is not always on top of employers’ to-do lists, especially since incidents most often happen outside of work hours. While many organizations have policies specific to their workplace, crashes outside of work can impact business costs for things like insurance premiums and days away from work.
Employers can help save money and save lives! Help your employees understand the risks of impaired driving. More than 50% of Ohio’s fatal crashes result from drivers operating a vehicle while impaired. December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. Review Ohio State Highway Patrol’s crash dashboard to see the data in each county.
Remind your employees they need to have a plan when celebrating: Always drive 100% sober, designate a sober driver, use a taxi or rideshare service. The National Safety Council and the Ohio Traffic Safety Office encourage people to use these services.
Research has repeatedly indicated a correlation between an increase in ride-hailing use and a decrease in drunk driving. A 2023 study that compared ride-hailing and drunk driving rates in Boston, Worcester and Northampton, Mass., found that DUI arrests decreased by up to 53% following the introduction of ride-hailing services.
Impairment can also be a result of drugs, including opioids, marijuana and some over-the counter medicines. Check your over-the-counter medicines here to see if there are any risks to driving. Fatigue and stress may also impair the ability to drive. Remember: If you feel different, you drive different.
Look for additional resources from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to share with your employees, including social media books, talking points, message boards and graphics. Share these resources in common areas to promote a safe lifestyle outside of work hours:
- Media campaigns: Drunk driving resources
- Blackout Wednesday/Thanksgiving eve resources
- Thanksgiving resources
Thanksgiving is all about family, food, football and fun! Bring safety to the table along with the turkey, and help your employees prepare for a safe holiday.
Telematics: What’s the Safety Impact?
Cambridge Mobile Telematics is the world’s largest telematics service provider, with the mission to make the world’s roads and drivers safe. Ohio uses the company’s DriveWell® Fusion platform, which has the ability to understand distracted driving behaviors. With the use of advanced signal processing and artificial intelligence, the platform makes sense of complex sensor data from connected vehicles. DriveWell® Fusion captures more than 1 trillion sensor time series points and processes 30 petabytes of data per day.
Ohio became a hands-free state in April 2023. Since that time, Cambridge reports handheld phone and screen interaction while driving is down 10% among drivers who share their data as part of employer-based safety programs or in exchange for insurance discounts. Cambridge estimates the law has already prevented $238 million in economic costs related to crashes.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Oct. 17 that traffic crashes significantly decreased in the year since Ohio’s strengthened distracted driving law was adopted. Local peace officers and the Ohio State Highway Patrol began enforcing Ohio’s new distracted driving law in October 2023, following a six-month grace period for motorists. Preliminary data from the Ohio State Highway Patrol shows that from Oct. 5, 2023, to Oct. 4, 2024, there were nearly 15,400 fewer motor vehicle crashes compared to the 12 months prior. The total number of traffic fatalities also dropped with 138 fewer people killed.
Employers can highlight these statistics and use the Phones Down. It’s the Law fact sheet in safety huddles. Every time we get behind the wheel, our actions make a difference.
Older Driver Safety
Join us in recognizing Older Driver Safety Awareness Week Dec. 2-6. Fatal traffic crashes involving older drivers have increased, and it is important to reinforce safety protocols to help them deal with physical and mental changes.
As your employees grow older, they may experience changes in vison, physical mobility and reflexes. All raise safety concerns. It is important to understand that many adults over age 55 may have these and other difficulties that increase their risk of being involved in a crash.
Take steps to address any challenges. Start by reviewing health and wellness policies and training requirements at your location. Keep road safety front and center by sharing these reminders with employees regularly via your communication channels:
- Get a physical and an eye exam once a year
- Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review prescription and over-the-counter medications to reduce the risk of side effects, such as fatigue or dizziness, which can lead to impairment behind the wheel
- Drive distraction-free: Silence your phone, set your GPS before you depart and refrain from eating or drinking behind the wheel
- Travel on streets that are well-lit and equipped with left-turn signals
- Increase following distance to allow plenty of time for sudden stops
These free resources from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are available to increase your knowledge and promote older driver safety awareness:
- Talking Points (English or Spanish)
- Physical Limitations (Driving-Related Fact Sheet)
- Driving Abilities Change as We Age (Poster)
- Drive Well Toolkit
- Learn about Driving with Vision Disorders
- Keeping Senior Drivers Independent with an Interprofessional Approach
The Road to Zero Coalition, with the generous sponsorship of Uber, is proud to launch its Safe on the Road: Empowering Senior Drivers webinar series. The first of three expert panels, Understanding the Challenges Facing Older Drivers, will take place at 11 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, Dec. 3. Join us as we hear the latest in research and practice from:
- David B. Carr, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Geriatric Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, and contributor on over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters, mostly related to older drivers
- Loren Staplin, PhD, founder and managing partner of the consulting firm TransAnalytics, LLC, who has successfully led 40 research grants and contracts relating to relationships between aging, driver functional abilities and traffic safety
- Megan Edwards Collins, PhD, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Winston-Salem State University and researcher into the impact of driving on older adult quality of life
This webinar will ensure you and the people in your organization know the facts on age-related fitness to drive, can evaluate one’s ability to drive safely, understand improvements in vehicle and highway design that best support older drivers and empower older adults in planning for retirement from driving. We hope you will be able to join us on Tuesday, Dec. 3. Please register here. We look forward to seeing you! And keep an eye out for thenext webinars in this series in early 2025, Adapting and Staying Safe and Planning for the Future.