October 2024 Newsletter: Try These Two BOO-itful Ways to Make a Safety Impact!

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This is a National Teen Driver Safety Week icon.Looking for ways to reinforce the importance of road safety and help keep your young delivery drivers safe? Do you want to make a safety impact employees can bring home to family and community members? Well, look no further. Start by participating in National Teen Driver Safety Week Oct. 20-26.

To make it easy, the National Safety Council is offering a free toolkit through its DriveitHOME program. All of the resources in the kit are available in English and Spanish, including:

  • Posters on safe driving topics
  • Videos to get parents and caregivers more involved
  • Animated graphics on top risk factors for new drivers
  • Social media assets that come with ready-to-use communications

In Texas, 84,846 drivers between the ages of 15 and 19 were involved in crashes last year, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. Three of the top crash contributing factors:

  • Distraction
  • Speeding
  • Impairment

When you provide continuing education and training, you can help reduce the likelihood of crashes involving your workers, minimize your company’s crash-related costs and help your younger drivers build safer driving habits. Get your free materials, and get the peace of mind that comes with prioritizing road safety.

A school bus in Dallas is parked next to the curb as the driver waits for students to be dismissed from class.

Be ‘Wheelie’ Great!

During National School Bus Safety Week Oct. 21-25, many teachers in Texas and elsewhere across the country will encourage their students to participate in a contest to create a new school bus safety poster. The contest is sponsored by the National Association for Pupil Transportation.

Expand your focus beyond students. You can also provide training for those who transport preschool children and children with disabilities in your district by offering individual online learning modules from the National Safety Council. In the School Bus Learning Library, they can build on their knowledge of topics ranging from crash dynamics and occupant restraint to child safety restraint systems and emergency evacuation.

To earn a certificate of completion for the Child Passenger Safety on School Buses National Training, members of your staff will need to complete hands-on activities during an in-person or hybrid delivery of the course.

In the workplace, there are many other ways for you to participate in National School Bus Safety Week and showcase your safety-first mindset. Two examples:

  • Reach out to a nearby school and offer to sponsor a crossing guard
  • Use your social channels to provide messages about school bus safety for both drivers and children

Finally, share these school zone safety tips from the National Safety Council in communications with your team:

  • Don’t block the crosswalk when stopped at a red light or waiting to make a turn
  • In a school zone when bus flashers are blinking, stop and yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk
  • Always stop for a school patrol officer or crossing guard holding up a stop sign
  • Take extra care to look for children in school zones, near playgrounds and parks, and in all residential areas

Offer incentives to employees who take the Just Drive Pledge from the National Safety Council and commit to distraction-free driving. This is a great way for everyone on your team to participate in a road safety movement, raise awareness of school bus safety and keep children safe.