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 Safe Driving Tips

Winter Emergency Car Kit

It's that time of year to get ready in the event you get stuck in inclement weather.

Many motorists don't prepare and find themselves ill prepared to deal with winter weather.

Here is a basic list from The Old Farmers Almanac of essential items to have on board in case you have a winter emergency:
  • A snowbrush and ice scraper
  • A bag of sand to help with traction
  • Extra windshield fluid
  • A blanket, just in case
  • Old winter boots and clothes for the trunk
In addition to the above items, here is a list of essential emergency items:
  • Battery-powered radio, flashlight, and extra batteries
  • Blanket
  • Jumper Cables
  • Bottled water and nonperishable high-energy foods such as granola bars, raisins, and peanut butter
  • Fire extinguisher (5-lb., A-B-C type)
  • First-aid kit and manual
  • Maps, shovel, flares
  • Tire repair kit and pump
  • Spare tire
Program News
Employee Safe Driving Boot Camp
Check out our two hour concentrated classroom driving safety program called "EcoFleet Employee Safe Driving Boot Camp".  It's an interactive experience that really involves your employees in the training.

It's fast paced, enjoyable and a great way to meet regulatory compliance or other training needs.

NEED TO TRAIN YOUR OWN TRAINER?: 

EcoFleet offers a train-the-trainer program for your own safety professional to deliver this program in-house.

Please Contact us for details.

SPECIAL:
15% off on all Boot Camp classroom courses during November and December, 2105 when you mention this offer.

Contact Us for additional information and pricing.
Eco Fleet Training 
offers the recently updated:

AAA Driver Improvement Program™
- Managing Visibility, Time and Space™

Let us help you take out the hassle of finding good classroom training.

The AAA Program is a nationally recognized classroom defensive driving progam can be presented by our certified instructors to reinforce employee/fleet safe driving and your company vehicle and driving safety policies.

We offer both four and six hour training formats with this course.

   

Please contact us for information on this excellent classroom defensive driving course and on-site training for your group. 
Coaching Systems Programs Update:

EcoFleet offers quality programs from our partner Coaching Systems.

These classroom training products are excellent for use in your internal employee safe driving program and require no instructor training.

We offer classroom and online courses for cars, trucks, buses, and just about every other form of vehicle types.

If you are looking for a great refresher program, please look at the Coaching Refresher program for possible use.

The Refresher requires no Response Guide and is very affordable to purchase.

Contact us for pricing or you can order online.
FuelSave Driving Program™
 

EcoFleet Training Solutions can help your organization lower fuel costs and reduce your carbon footprint.

Our FuelSave Driving Program is a 2 to 3 hour classroom (and optional on-road) program that helps drivers learn strategies and techniques to lower fuel consumption.

Attendees learn how their driving behavior can be altered to incorporate fuel savings within safe driving practices.

Contact us for pricing or  give us a call at (888) 982-9517.

Traffic Safety Resources

November & December, 2015


W elcome to our November | December, 2015 newsletter. We appreciate your interest in road safety issues and hope you enjoy. Please feel free to pass this on to other friends, co-workers or employee drivers.

Driverless cars continue to make the news.  Here in California, just last week the first traffic stop was made on a car with no driver - a Google car.

According to a November 13th article in the San Jose Mercury News, the car was traveling at 25 mph in a 35 mph zone. Police say they stopped the car because it was impeding traffic by traveling so slow. In this case, nobody was ticketed.

The incident is a first of its kind but it does bring up concerns about these vehicles which are coming soon to a road near you.  Although Google has been very visible with it's testing in Northern California and Texas, there are still questions about liability and how to hold a vehicle responsible for it's actions.

All of the major car manufacturers are developing these vehicles - General Motors, Volvo, Mercedes Benz along with Tesla are working on technology that will soon pilot cars autonomously around the country.  

Initially cars will have technology that will enable drivers to let the car "take control"  with a flip of a switch. Tesla's model S now has an autopilot feature which has been heavily criticized for enabling drivers to allow the car to basically take over. It is assumed that as technology advances, self-driving controls will guide all vehicles.

Videos are already all over You Tube showing drivers doing very dangerous things - such as one video showing the driver in the back seat while a Tesla with auto-pilot tools down the road. Holy technology!

Quite a few issues remain regarding these vehicles. Liability concerns and other issues including necessary rules and law changes are slow to emerge. 

E ven though the California DMV was tasked over a year ago to develop rules for driverless cars, they still haven't been able to get this done. The bureaucracy simply can't move things forward, according to this article published in the Christian Science Monitor.

Most of all, it will be interesting to see how the public accepts this huge impending change to our transportation system.
Newsworthy Road Safety Information
Takata Airbag Debacle May Expand  to Other  Manufacturers

US Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox indicates the current investigation of Takata airbags may be expanded to additional manufacturers.   

The current recall is now up to 19 million vehicles and other manufacturers are still using ammonium nitrate, a chemical propellant that US safety regulators are no longer confident in.

Honda and Toyota recently announced they would no longer be using Takata airbags although Tesla, Volkswagen, Daimler and Jaguar Land Rover are still installing Takata airbags.

Earlier this month, the US DOT fined Takata 200 million dollars and has ordered 12 manufacturers to speed up the recall process. According to an article in the Seattle Times, there have been 9 deaths and 98 injuries from these airbags.

More information on the status of the US Dept. of Transportation's efforts to manage the recall can be found here.   The site to check to see if a vehicle is on the recall list can be found here.
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The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has recently issued a new study finding most drivers are extremely distracted by the use of voice prompted command systems.  

An article in Motor Trend indicates drivers are mentally distracted for up to 27 seconds after using these controls. Also found was that some systems are more distracting than others.

Motor Trend points out "M ental distraction was rated on a five-point scale, with anything rated 2 or above considered potentially dangerous by the organization."

AAA recommends that drivers only use these voice command prompts while the vehicle is stationary to lessen driver risk.

Here is the breakdown of the various systems available and their ranking relative to risk:



Driver Health Related to Overall Safety

Driver health is a significant factor to driving safety according to an article recently published by Fleet Owner magazine.

According to Fleet Owner, " During Travelers' Third Annual Transportation Safety Symposium, Chris Hayes, second vice president of transportation risk control at the insurance group, explained study after study shows that drivers are the root cause of 93% of accidents."

Further the article indicates " Statistics of average Americans show that 51.3% drink alcohol, 34.9% adults are obese, 52% of adults are physically inactive, 18% smoke, 11.3% adults have heart disease, 9.3% are diabetic, of which 27.8% are undiagnosed. And chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and obesity are even more prominent within the trucking industry."

Symposium presenters suggest that although these conditions exist in the general population, drivers should not be screened out because of these conditions but instead should be included in wellness and other employee development programs.
Feds:  Safety Belts Should be Standard on All School Buses

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's new leader Mark Rosekind recently changed directions regarding the agency's recommendations about whether seat belts should be installed on school buses.

In a recent speech to the National Association for Pupil Transportation, Rosekind announced this shift in policy to support the installation of three-point safety belts in all school buses nationwide.

Critics point out that there is considerable expense involved with the estimated cost of $7,000 - $10,000 per recently manufactured bus.  

Currently only six states require safety belts installed on school buses:  California, Florida, Louisiana, New York, New Jersey and Texas.
Other EcoFleet News
Featured Products - Coaching Systems Online Training Programs 

 
EcoFleet offers an entire suite of online employee safe driving programs for businesses and government agencies. 

These quality online driver training courses are vehicle specific - designed by experts to address unique risks and issues related to the type of vehicles driven.

Online training affords safety managers (or whomever is in charge of training employees) the ability to efficiently manage progress an attendance.  We can establish a special administrator account  for you to manage the training: to remind employees to attend, view progress and test scores and document completion.

This cost effective manner to deliver training also includes volume discount for large groups.  Here is the list of available online training programs:

Any of the above titles are available for free preview. Please contact us for a preview or visit our website for additional  information or to order.
Safe Driving Corner 
Greetings:

It's hard to believe another year is about to be behind us. As this year ends, we want to thank all of our customers, partners and vendors for all of the support EcoFleet has received.

The Holidays are about to be upon us and we hope, if you are travelling this season, your travels will be safe and enjoyable.

Shorter days and earlier darkness this time of year are valid reasons to be more conscious of bicycles on our roadways.  Almost every year, bicyclists account for 2% of roadway deaths and although this is a leading cause of head injuries, only 21 states require younger riders to wear helmets however no state requires all bicyclists to do so.

NHTSA indicates 743 cyclists  died in 2013 and 48,000 we injured.  Interestingly 80 percent of bicyclists who died were over 20 years old - a category seeing a spike in bicycle fatalities. According to NHTSA's Fatality Facts "  Deaths among bicyclists younger than 20 have declined 86 percent since 1975, while deaths among bicyclists 20 and older have increased 195 percent."

Even with these numbers, San Francisco leaders are voting next month on a bill that would allow what's termed an Idaho Stop

This proposed measure is similar to a law in force in Idaho since 1982 that  allows  cyclists  to treat a  stop sign  as a  yield sign , and a  red light  as a stop sign. 

According to a recent San Francisco Chronicle  article, the issue is heated and even though Mayor Ed Lee vows to veto the measure, if passed, other City leaders are looking for two more supporters to override the veto.

I drive quite a bit in San Francisco and I can't imagine how this will help an already dangerous environment in which to drive.  Many cyclists ignore traffic laws, drive with arrogance and could benefit by increased penalties for doing so.

Treating stop signs as yield signs?  Whew!!!

See you down the road!
                                               
Save travels,
Greg


EcoFleet Training Solutions | 888-982-9517 | info@ecofleettraining.com |   
A Division of Logical Training Solutions, LLC
PO Box 56
Empire, CA 95319