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You have been put in charge of creating a vehicle safety program for your organization. You are looking for statistics on how frequently vehicle accidents are work-related and what helps curb them. Where should you begin?
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The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has a fact sheet on motor vehicle safety that will help answer your questions. The fact sheet is part of OSHA's promotional campaign "Every Belt—Every Ride," designed to encourage federal workers to wear seat belts every time they ride in a vehicle on public business. Although the campaign is aimed at federal employees, the focus will save lives in any employment situation.
"Every Belt—Every Ride" seeks to remind federal employees of the life-saving value of seat belts and their obligation to use the safety devices in government vehicles, private cars and taxies, whenever and wherever they go on public business.
Costs of traffic crashes
- Traffic crashes are the leading cause of on-the-job fatalities in America.
- From 1992 to 2001, half the federal workers who died on the job lost their lives in transportation incidents.
- In Fiscal Year 2003, at least 28 federal workers were killed in job-related traffic crashes and about 8,000 more were injured.
- Over the past five years, the U.S. government has paid out nearly $75 million in medical and compensation costs linked to federal employee injuries and deaths related to motor vehicle crashes.
Seat belts save lives
- Using seat belts cuts the risk of death by 45 percent for people riding in cars and by as much as 60 percent for those traveling in trucks or SUVs.
- Seat belts save 14,000 lives each year and every state in the nation has a law mandating seat belt use. But 20 percent of Americans still fail to buckle up.
- Federal employees are required to wear seat belts—every time they travel on public business as passengers or drivers—by Executive Order 13043.
Source: Motor Vehicle Safety Facts, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, http://www.osha.gov. |
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