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While driving may not be the primary job of your contractors, it’s still a part of their daily routine … and a risk-filled one at that!
Identification and Correction
The best defense against an accident is not having one. But with the number of miles traveled and the realities of vehicle travel, your drivers simply cannot avoid all accidents. However, you can reduce their chances of an accident by training, monitoring, and reforming driver behavior using dash cam technology. A dash cam system accelerates the identification and correction of unsafe behaviors and sustains the change with ongoing coaching and recognition.
Contractors that correctly use a dash cam system as part of a continual driver training process have achieved best-in-class risk mitigation. A 2019 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of companies who used video event-based coaching and training along with other safety strategies revealed the following results:
- Seven companies reported that their DOT crash rate decreased an average of 49%.
- Three companies shared that their Unsafe Driving BASIC showed an average 37% improvement.
- Five companies reported an average 42% improvement in their Crash Indicator BASIC.
Companies shared in a separate study1 how they are leveraging dash cams and the results they are seeing:
- Nearly 53% said they are now analyzing hard braking events to discover driver behavior trends.
- Over 47% are using the data to improve driving training programs.
- Over 22% said their CSA scores have improved since installation.
The Best Legal Defense is Prevention
In their 2020 study, Understanding the Impact of Verdicts on the Trucking Industry, The American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) in Arlington, VA, found that verdict awards over $1 million had skyrocketed.
Additional research by ATRI presented in The Impact of Small Verdicts and Settlements on the Trucking Industry showed that more than 600 cases resulted in a settlement or verdict award of less than $1 million.
Why such significant awards? Because a company’s actions are judged in court by what they should have known and done, not what they took the time to find and correct. A company must correct any unsafe situation that could affect the motoring public, which is made easier by monitoring driver behavior using video.
The study noted a correlation between cases in which companies were accused of poor hiring or training practices and cases with drivers who had previous driving or hours-of-service violations.
The ATRI Crash Predictor Model study correlated traffic violation or conviction to the increased likelihood of a crash with examples such as:
Failure to Yield Right of Way violation . . . . . . . . . . . . 141%
Failure to Use/Improper Turn Signal conviction . . . . 116%
Reckless Driving violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104%
Failure to Obey Traffic Sign conviction . . . . . . . . . . . . .85%
Failure to Keep Proper Lane conviction . . . . . . . . . . . . 78%
Reckless/Careless/Inattentive Driving conviction . . . 62%
When it comes to driver training, you should actively prioritize the prevention of the most costly infractions that ATRI shares and that your dash cam videos and data reveal. And since trucking companies are experts in driver safety, contractors would do well to follow their lead.
Taking Action in the Event of An Accident
If your driver is in an accident, you can proactively protect your business by speaking to your legal counsel about initiating litigation against involved parties who contributed to or caused the crash. The contracting professional is not the cause of the vast majority of crashes. The passenger cars are at fault most of the time. Rather than feeling lucky that you weren’t sued, you may be better served by engaging the other party in a lawsuit to protect your company.
Even if you can’t wholly exonerate your driver, video evidence may still motivate a plaintiff to settle more quickly and for less than expected. Your dash cam video could show that the situation wasn’t nearly as egregious as prior statements indicate!
To objectively assess your fleet’s safety program, download J. J. Keller’s FREE Fleet Safety Program Assessment.
1 Leveraging the Benefits of Dash Cam Technology. J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. and Freightwaves. November, 2019
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