Employment-related accidents behind the wheel are the leading cause of death from traumatic injuries in the workplace, killing some 2,200 people a year and accounting for 22% of job-related fatalities. Deaths and injuries from these accidents increase costs and reduce productivity for employers – while bringing pain and suffering to family, friends, and coworkers.
Preventing work-related roadway crashes poses a significant risk management challenge. The roadway is a unique work environment. Compared with other work settings, employers have little ability to control conditions and exert direct supervision over their drivers. The volume of traffic and road construction continue to increase, while workers feel pressured to drive faster for longer periods, and often use mobile electronic devices that distract them behind the wheel.
To help reduce this risk, for both long-distance truck drivers and employees who occasionally use personal vehicles for company business, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that employers follow these precautions:
- Require drivers and passengers to use seat belts.
- Ensure that employees who drive on the job have valid licenses.
- Incorporate road fatigue management in safety programs.
- Provide fleet vehicles with top quality crash protection.
- Make sure employees receive training to operate specialized vehicles.
- Offer periodic vision screening and physicals for employees whose primary job is driving.
- Avoid requiring workers to drive irregular or extended hours.
- Prohibit cell phone use and other distracting activities such as eating, drinking, or adjusting non-critical vehicle controls while driving.
- Set schedules that allow drivers to obey speed limits.
- Follow state laws on graduated driver’s licensing and child labor.
For more information about how to prevent work-related driving deaths and injuries, just give one of our Risk Management experts a call at any time.
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If you have teenagers, you’re well aware that they’re all too prone to take risks. Four in five U.S. teen (80%) have part-time jobs. Of these, more than half (52%) are in the retail sector, which includes restaurants and fast food establishments.
To help keep themselves safe on the job – and thus reduce their employers’ risk-management exposure – teenagers who work in restaurants and agriculture can use interactive web-based training tools provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
According to OSHA, educating and training young people about safety in the workplace can help prevent injuries today and lead to a healthy workforce in the future. These resources provide practical information to protect young workers from hazards in industries where many of them are likely to work during high school and college.
The Teen Worker Safety in Restaurants eTool highlights the most common hazards in these workplaces and offers safety and health suggestions, safety posters, and electronic links to educate young workers about job safety. Areas of focus include serving, clean-up, drive-thru, cooking, food preparation, delivery, and worker rights and child labor laws.
The Youth in Agriculture eTool presents case studies that describe common hazards and offers safety solutions for teenage workers in such areas as farm equipment operations, confined spaces, and prevention of c injuries g from falls, electrocutions, and chemical exposures.
The OSHA Teen Workers page offers educational resources such as fact sheets on workplace rights and responsibilities, hazards on the job, ways to prevent injuries, work hours, job restrictions, etc.
Letting teenage workers know about these resources can benefit them – and their employers. What’s not to like?
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Metal car keys are going the way of the land line, as most drivers have graduated to a key fob or remote with a transponder that needs programming before use. If you own a high-tech luxury vehicle you might have a “smart key” – a remote control to plug into your dashboard or leave in your pocket.
Although these devices add convenience, they’re pricey. You’ll pay $200 to $400 to replace a smart key on a luxury car, plus $100 an hour for labor. If you lose all your keys, you might need to replace the locks, which could cost $1,000.
Auto insurance will cover the cost of replacing smart keys (or metal keys) only if the loss comes from a peril covered under the policy. For example, if your keys are damaged when you collide with another car, Collision coverage would pay to replace them. Comprehensive coverage –which reimburses you for loss or damage to your vehicle from theft, vandalism, fire, hail, or flood – would include replacement of the keys, as part of the vehicle.
If your car keys are stolen, Homeowners insurance should pay to replace them because theft is a “named peril” under the policy.
Bear in mind that your Auto or Homeowners deductible will apply against the cost of replacement.
Technology is well on the way to eliminating car keys. According to the AAA, smart phone apps that allow you to unlock and start your car are standard on many vehicles as of 2015.
In the meantime, you can avoid paying the high cost of replacing smart keys by keeping spares in a safe place.
To learn more, please feel free to get in touch with us.
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“Contingent workers” {part-time, temporary, or contract employees) face a high risk of occupational injuries and illness. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health, reasons include the tendency to outsource more hazardous jobs, worker lack of experience and familiarity with operations in a new workplace, inadequate protective equipment, and limited access to such preventive measures as medical screening programs.
Even though the safety of contract workers is the legal responsibility of the contractor, the OSHA General Duty Clause makes you responsible for protecting everyone in your workplace. To meet this obligation, and bolster workplace safety compliance, we’d recommend these guidelines:
- Make sure that the contractor agrees to comply with OSHA requirements. If the contractor doesn’t follow safety rules, force compliance or stop work for breach of contract.
- Set safety compliance ground rules up front.
- Share accountability for safety compliance with the contractor. Although you might not be legally responsible for an accident caused by a contract employee, it’s still your problem.
- Offer assistance. Explain hazardous conditions or processes during project orientation and stress any rules and restrictions, such as hot-work permit requirements, lockout/tagout, and confined spaces situations and needs.
- Document communications with contractors. Have them sign an agreement for resolving specific safety problems or for conducting inspections.
- Read the OSHA Multi-Employer Citation Policy compliance directive (CPL 02-00-124), which applies to contractors on your work site.
Finally, the fact that most contingent workers will only be in your workplace for a short time adds to the urgency of getting them up to speed on company safety policies ASAP.
For more information on keeping contingent workers safe in your workplace, please feel free to get in touch with us.
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If a catastrophe struck your business, who would provide such critical services as site clean-up, emergency power supplies, off-site redundant data storage, and alternative communication systems until you can get up and running again?
In this situation, having agreements in advance with restoration companies and other service providers can save you time, money, and headaches.
Although most companies recognize that such prearrangements can play a critical role in emergency crisis management planning, few take steps to develop specific relationships with their disaster service providers.
That can be an expensive mistake, says Michelle Cross, Boston-based National Practice Leader for Business Continuity at Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA. She points out that, “for any service provider to really provide quality, top-level, appropriate service, they have to know about your company, what you need, and what hazards you have on site.”
Pre-planning can also reduce Business Interruption deduction and claims significantly by shortening downtime to services and operations after a disaster, notes Dave Boyle, head of Property Claims for Zurich North America (Schaumburg, IL).
A case in point: Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide uses pre-arranged recovery agreements because many of its properties are in locations at risk for natural disaster. When Hurricane Katrina struck, the Starwood Sheraton was the only hotel in New Orleans that remained open during and after the megastorm. Says Stephen Truono, the company’s Vice President of Global Risk Management and Insurance: “It’s about having a plan, practicing that plan, and engaging the necessary critical vendors, such as providers of power, plywood, diesel oil and potable water.”
Prearranged provider agreements are inexpensive and usually do not involve a fee until the time of service.
What’s not to like?
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The disastrous Japanese earthquake/tsunami of March 2011 drowned thousands of people – but the toll would have been far higher without the nation’s comprehensive warning system, which combined radio broadcasts, text messages, and sirens with firefighters’ door-to-door calls.
Every business needs an effective emergency communications notification system that has low-tech and high tech elements. Here’s an overview of the advantages and disadvantages that each type offers:
Low-tech systems can be effective, but have serious limitations. Although calling trees are valuable for mass communications, they’re slow, subject to errors, and breakdowns. Sirens and alarms provide immediate warning and can alert everyone who’s in a dangerous area; however, they can’t provide much information and have a limited range. Intercom systems are reasonably fast and can communicate detailed information, but usually operate in only one building.
High-tech systems provide automated mass notification of detailed warnings rapidly and accurately to a wide range of devices, including phones (land line and cell) and computers (e-mail and instant messaging) through multiple communication networks. High-tech systems can also target messages to individual groups, such as first responders. However, they don’t offer a panacea. For one thing, cell phones might be turned off. Although communication with cell phones is available by voice mail or text messaging, these systems are vulnerable to a general outage of communication networks. Their “call capacity” might be a serious limitation, especially for larger firms.
For most businesses, a warning system that blends low tech (alarms and sirens) with high tech (automated notification) can provide effective communication when an emergency strikes.
When choosing a system, you should also weigh such factors as cost and ease of use.
Our risk management experts would be happy to offer you their advice.
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