Win the Biggest Game
February is the time to cheer on your favorite team in the big game (and vote for your favorite commercial) and select the perfect gift for your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.
Take this opportunity to share a life-saving message with your coworkers before they head out for all the celebrations.
DRIVE SOBER: Impaired driving crashes spike on weekends and during holidays. In Texas, one person dies every 9 hours and 6 minutes in a DUI-alcohol-related crash, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Across the state last year:
- Nearly 1,000 people were killed in crashes involving an impaired driver
- More of these crashes happen on Sunday than any other day of the week
Be sure your team is prepared to have fun and be safe. Share these safety tips on a bulletin board at your location or on your intranet safety page:
- Plan for safety before heading out: Volunteer to be a designated driver or use a rideshare service.
- When you ride home with your sober driver, make sure you — and your driver — wear your seat belts. It’s your best defense in a crash.
- Save lives, save costs: A DUI can cost you about $10,000; a crash could cost a life.
In addition, you can score seven points for safety with these seven free resources:
- Download and share our impairment safety posters, including When You Drink, Don’t Drive
- Display this poster: Buckle Up My Love
- Play Impairment Jeopardy and create engagement with our e-learning options
- Use this Traffic Safety Huddle sheet on impaired driving to lead a brief safety talk
- Watch and share our 60-second Driver Behavior Safety Series videos, including one focusing on impairment
- Share these videos they won’t soon forget: TxDOT Faces of Drunk Driving
- Get materials from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including posters and fact sheets
While February is the shortest month, you can always go long on safety.
Wired for Communication
One way to improve your driver safety program is to invest in your team. Kenny Ray, vice president of safety and risk consulting with the Marsh McLennan Agency and former Texas Ranger, will discuss the critical impact managers have on coaching employees.
Make plans now to join us Thursday, Feb. 16: Coaching the Coach.
Ray notes that frontline managers engage with truckers and fleet drivers on a regular basis and are best suited to reinforce safe driving habits. The goal, of course, is to reduce crashes and costly claims. He will offer tips on how to help your managers cultivate their communication skills.
Rays says effective safety communication is one of the biggest factors in building a companywide culture of driver and transportation safety. Through his personal experiences, he will relate how feedback and teamwork are born out of that communication. Then, he says, the safety policies and procedures you have in place will come to life, just as you intended when creating your safety-training manual.
Welcome April!
Please welcome April Ramos to our team! She will focus her work on training, exhibits and public outreach.
Prior to joining the National Safety Council, April spent 20 years at the Texas Department of State Health Services working in the Safe Riders Program. Earlier, she launched her career at the Austin/Travis County Health Department. She taught bicycle and pedestrian safety to children and provided car seat safety education to parents and caregivers.
April, a native Texan, is a graduate of Texas State University. Reach out to her via email: [email protected]