Safety in the public eye
Undoubtedly, at this time of year, you and your safety department will be exposed to countless amounts of literature that exhort the value of safe driving during the winter months—and there are reasons for that.
Driving during snowy and icy conditions in the winter is definitely a much harder task than driving during pristine weather conditions and should always be taken seriously. However, as I write my column, rainfall of epic proportions has bestowed the southeastern part of our nation. We have seen the footage, the washed-out roadways, the flood-damaged homes, and even the dramatic water rescues. That being said, are we training our drivers on the perils of driving during epic rainstorms and traveling through flood-ravaged areas?
After seeing the dramatic footage of a truck driver traversing a flooded road, which was filmed by some folks who were stuck in traffic in another lane, I figured I just had to write about it. When I use the term “flooded road,” I am not speaking of a water level that is 6 in. deep but rather water that could be measured in feet. If you have seen the footage, even you can testify that the water level was just below the hood of the tractor and just below the trailer in terms of depth—clearly much higher than the recommended rims of the tire.
We can all extol the safety ramifications of traveling through flooded roads—not ignoring barricades, taking extra precautions, paying attention to standing water. I could go on and on. Even more importantly, in a situation that was seen through the eyes of social media, let’s encourage our drivers to stay out of situations that could possibly only add to the particular problem. Simply put, a town dealing with immeasurable damage from a natural catastrophe does not need the problem of having a truck stuck in the middle of a flooded thoroughfare to add to its already gigantic headache.
Not only do we live in a day and age where drivers have to deal with extreme weather conditions, but we also live in a time where just about everyone we come across has the ability to capture on video and post any and all poor decisions that we make. As social media becomes the mainstream of news reporting, the simple capture and posting of a truck driving through a highly flooded roadway will almost undoubtedly cast a negative light on the majority of an industry that wouldn’t do anything nearly as reckless or unsafe.
As carriers and professionals in the motor carrier industry, we speak at great lengths to educate our fleets and drivers on safe driving practices not to mention our efforts to communicate our industry’s safety record to the public. We constantly strive to make our highways safer and focus on the good things that this industry does to perform at its highest safety levels. We also insist that our industry is made up of good citizens making sound decisions.
So, next time we begin the training process of driving in inclement weather, let’s highlight the effects that can happen to our drivers if they make one decision that could turn out to be a bad one.
David Heller, CDS, is director of safety and policy for the Truckload Carriers Assn. He is responsible for interpreting and communicating industry-related regulations and legislation to the membership of TCA. Send comments to [email protected].
