TRUCKERS' SAFETY * Switzerland - New truck driver safety checklists

Geneve,Switzerland -HGV UK -April 19, 2011: -- The International Road Transport Union (IRU) in conjunction with the International Union of Professional Drivers (UICR) have produced two new professional truck driver-safety checklists, on the topics of ‘Vehicle Safety’ and ‘First Aid’... These checklists aim to best equip drivers with sufficient knowledge to avoid accidents on the roads and be prepared in emergency situations to save lives... These checklists are available free of charge for download through the IRU’s bookshop in English, French, and German... The checklists can be downloaded at IRU blog, by clicking here...

* USA - Study claims traffic violations raise risk of future crash

Arlington,VA,USA -Fleet Owner, by Sean Kilcarr -Apr 21, 2011: -- A new study by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) is finding a high degree of correlation between the number and type of traffic convictions received by commercial truck drivers and their risk of being involved in a crash down the road... ATRI’s study examined data on 582,772 U.S. truck drivers between 2007 and 2009 and found a dozen specific behaviors and convictions that, in aggregate, raise a driver’s risk of being involved in a truck crash by more than 50%... Broken down individually, the group’s analysis discerned that a “failure to use/improper signal” conviction increased likelihood of a future crash by 96%. Ten additional convictions were also significant crash predictors; of these, eight had an associated crash likelihood increase between 56% and 84%, while two registered between 36% and 40%... In relation to driver violations, an improper passing violation had the strongest association with crash involvement, ATRI noted. Drivers with this violation were 88% more likely than their peers to be involved in a crash. Seven additional violations had significant crash associations, with five ranging in magnitude between 38% and 45%, and a further two ranking between 18% and 21%... Finally, the results indicated that drivers who had a past crash also had an 88% increase in the likelihood of a future crash, ATRI’s research noted... 


* USA - Keeping Eyes on Distracted Driving’s Toll

New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by JANE E. BRODY -April 11, 2011: --  While driving a car, have you ever:

• Reprogrammed your GPS device?

• Retrieved something you or a child dropped?

• Searched for a particular CD?

• Put on makeup or shaved?

• Struggled to open a package of nuts or chips?

Perhaps you never have texted or talked on a cellphone while operating a motor vehicle. But if you engaged in any of the above activities, you are just as guilty of distracted driving as if you had...