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The Roemer Report On-Line, May, 2004
INSPECTOR GENERAL RELEASES SAFESTAT
REPORT: The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation
has released a report documenting its audit of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration's SafeStat scoring system. Representative Thomas Petri, Chairman
of the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee, requested the audit in August
2002 after the ATA communicated serious concerns with the SafeStat. The IG
found that while SafeStat generally calculated scores consistently, there
are "material weaknesses in the SafeStat data" reported by states
and motor carriers and with the "FMCSA processes for correcting and disclosing
data problems." The IG further commented, "Although we support SafeStat's
continued use as an internal risk management tool, the types and magnitude
of data problems we found argue for immediate and effective action to correct
data problems. The most serious concern is the continued public dissemination
of motor carrier rankings for the accident evaluation area given the incompleteness
of crash data." ATA intends to support the recommendations in the report
and plans to continue working with both FMCSA and Congress to ensure the identified
problems are handled in a prompt manner. For more information, please contact
the ATA Safety and Operations department at (703) 838-1847.
HELPING CITIZENS “SHARE THE ROAD”: The American Trucking Associations and Mack Trucks, Inc. are pleased to present an outreach program to present safety demonstrations to the media to reach the driving public through TV, radio and print called Share the Road. Reaching millions of motorists annually, this program has been in place for 16 years, delivering life-saving messages to hundreds of U.S. cities, and is one of ATA's most successful safety initiatives. Share the Road replaces the highly successful How To Drive program, a partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The program is urgently needed, since most drivers were never taught how to share the road safely with tractor-trailers. Car drivers, according to figures from the Department of Transportation and AAA, cause 70 to 75 percent of all truck-related auto fatalities with 35 percent of these occurring in a truck's blind areas. Educating people about a truck's blind spots, safe merging and longer stopping distances is essential to highway safety. Members of ATA's America's Road Team , along with professional truck drivers with exemplary safety records, serve as spokespersons, traveling to small, medium and large U.S. cities teaching the public how to share the road safely with trucks and other large commercial vehicles. State trucking association executives, ATA member companies, and local law enforcement officials are additional speakers and participants. By providing car drivers with specific tips on how to share the road, ATA and Mack Trucks are helping reduce accidents and save lives. The latest DOT reports credit safety programs, like Share the Road, with the significant reduction in truck-related fatalities over the past three years. Share the Road is managed by John Willard , Office of Public Affairs. He can be reached at (703) 838-1924.
BE PREPARED: One of the best things you can do to curb costs is to prevent accidents. Perhaps the next-best thing you can do is to successfully defend yourself against unwarranted claims should an accident occur. That depends almost entirely on how well your drivers are prepared, what drivers do and say at the scene of an accident and how well the scene is documented. Whether your company operates just a few local trucks or a nationwide operation, your drivers should be prepared in advance, and these key points should be part of that training: (1) Stop immediately . Failing to stop at the scene of an accident is a criminal offense. Pull over as soon as possible and as close to the scene as possible to call for help. One driver was jailed after driving half a mile past the scene before stopping. (2) Secure the scene . Even before checking on the injured, the driver should set out triangles to prevent another accident. (3) Turn on emergency flashers . Also, shift the transmission into low gear, shut off the engine, and set the parking brakes. (4) Check any injured . Don't move anyone unless is it a life-threatening situation. But do provide comfort to the injured by keeping them warm with a blanket or jacket and reassuring them that help is coming. (5) Cooperate with the police . Provide them with requested paperwork and answer their questions, sticking only to the facts. "Don't admit fault, don't apologize, don't explain, don't defend, don't confront," says one expert. What drivers say may be used later against them or their company. (6) Notify your company and/or the insurance company when possible . The sooner you call them, the sooner they can help at the scene of the accident. (7) Collect information . Politely ask witnesses to write down their names and addresses and what they saw. Record the license plate numbers of the vehicles involved and the names, insurance companies, and extent of injuries of the people. Insist that anyone injured go to a doctor immediately. Make certain your drivers follow these steps.
DID YOU SEE THAT GORILLA?: An experiment by Daniel J. Simons of the University of Illinois and Christopher F. Chabris of Harvard University reveals limitations related to human perception, specifically when there are several events competing for one's attention. Volunteers were asked to observe a video of two three-person teams, one team dressed in white shirts and one in black. Each team passes a basketball back and forth while moving around one another in an enclosed room. The observer is asked to count the number of passes made by the white team – sounds simple enough, but does require focused attention as the teams are shuffling about. After 35 seconds, a person clad in a gorilla suit unexpectedly enters the room, walks between the players while thumping his chest, and exits the room after nine seconds. When asked if they noticed anything unusual during the viewing, 50% of respondents failed to mention the appearance of the gorilla. In fact, many were certain there was no gorilla and asked to see the video again. This phenomenon is called inattentional blindness. When attending to one task, for example speaking on a cell phone while driving, many of us become blind to dynamic events, such as a gorilla in the crosswalk. Many accident reports contain claims like “I was looking but never saw them.” This is particularly true with accidents involving motor cycles and bicycles – two uncommon and unexpected vehicles. The Simons and Chabris experiment shows that t he perceptual system and the brain that analyzes its data are complex. As a consequence, much of what passes before our eyes may be invisible to a brain that is focused on something else. Simons reports that "the mistaken belief that important events will automatically draw attention is exactly why these findings are surprising; it is also what gives them some practical implications. By taking for granted that unexpected events will be seen, people often are not as vigilant as they could be in actively anticipating such events."
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD: Truckers with visual impairments say they can handle big rigs as safely as those with perfect vision. But safe-driving advocates, and even some trucking companies, have voiced doubts. Drivers with visual impairments are fairly commonplace. In Ohio , about one in four of every 1,000 commercial vehicle license holders have a medical waiver allowing them to drive, and many of those waivers are for visual impairments. Visual impairments among drivers range from cataracts, to amblyopia (lazy eye), to detached retinas. According to one government study, over 2,300 truckers who had problems with one eye were able to operate large trucks as safely as other drivers. However, Michael Scippa of the Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, says truck drivers have to be held to higher standards, including higher medical standards, than motor vehicle drivers because the sheer size and weight of their vehicles makes them more dangerous than cars. In the trucking industry, feelings about visually impaired drivers are mixed. Fear of lawsuits has made some trucking companies hesitant about hiring visually impaired drivers. The director of occupational safety and health for the American Trucking Associations says driving a truck is constantly visual, particularly with today's complicated dashboards. Drivers, he says, need not only good linear vision perception, but also adequate depth perception to locate passing vehicles. Drivers with visual impairments say they should have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to perform. Currently, several hundred drivers are waiting for federal waivers which are pending at the Department of Transportation Office.
A fault recognized is half corrected.
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