Safety Coach
Ounce of Prevention
One-quarter of hot car tragedies occur in workplace parking lots. Seven kids died in hot cars in Texas last year, and 126 have died across the state in the last 20 years. That means Texas ranks No. 1 in a category nobody wants to lead.
Pediatric vehicular heatstroke incidents typically result from one of three circumstances:
- A child is left in a vehicle, often as a result of a disruption in a parent’s routine
- A child gains access to an unlocked vehicle
- A child is knowingly left in a vehicle
Why is it so important to provide training now? During April and May last year, 10 kids died in hot cars. Typically, the weather begins to warm up in spring, and it’s important to know even on mild or cloudy days, temperatures inside vehicles can reach life-threatening levels.
The National Safety Council offers a free online course about the danger of heatstroke, the three primary circumstances that have led to children dying and what we all can do to prevent these deaths. The course is also available in Spanish.
Here are four more ways you can incorporate messaging into your safety program to raise awareness of risks associated with kids in hot cars, and protect your employees and their little ones:
- Be here now: Ask all employees, as they walk through the parking lot, to watch for children left unattended in vehicles
- Print and display our March safety calendar: It’s Never Safe to Leave a Child Unattended in a Car … Not Even for a Minute
- Share this video: A Promise to Payton
- Get information and free resources to share: Heatstroke Prevention
Texans can lead change.
Tailgate Talk
Building Blocks
In the name of safety, you talk about personal protective equipment. You talk about slips, trips and falls. You take steps to prevent incidents at your workplace. Do you give transportation safety the same attention? Occupational crashes, as well as off-the-job crashes involving employees and their family members, can impact your bottom line.
Coming up with new topics for safety talks can be challenging. Let us be your partner and provide a framework you can use. Our free Safety Huddle handouts do just that! These pieces cover a variety of traffic safety topics. New handouts are added to the Our Driving Concern website regularly and easily can be downloaded. Example: Along for the Ride. Discuss the topic of riding – being a passenger with co-workers in cars, trucks and vans – and the role of a good co-pilot.
Do you have the means to hire a crew and create a public service announcement to show your employees? Maybe … or maybe not. Live with Lisa is a collection of ready-made video clips you can share with employees to promote safe driving behaviors. Example: Be at Your Best Behind the Wheel. Click the share button on the upper right corner. Copy the URL and share it with your team. Quick and easy! Here are all the videos in the series.
When you attend Our Driving Concern transportation safety training, you will be given resources to:
- Recharge your transportation and driver safety program
- Understand and improve driver behavior
- Lead or host a safety minute and bring everyone to the table to talk safety
In these sessions, Our Driving Concern experts share forward-thinking ideas and occupational best-practice methods that can enhance your workplace safety culture.
Register: Attend a free transportation safety training session.
Go One Further
Dig deeper into an emerging workplace safety issue: impairment. The free Drug Impairment Training for Texas Employers (DITTE) is designed for you to get to know the signs and symptoms of impairment. This includes alcohol, prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and illicit drugs. Are items that could impair your employees hiding in plain sight at your workplace? You might be surprised! Get answers and reduce exposure to risk.
During this free training, you will receive a resource guide with many useful tools to help you be a more effective safety leader and learn how to:
- Protect your employees from injuries
- Get ahead of the effects of impairment with preventative steps, instead of reacting after an incident has occurred
- Cut costs associated with incidents involving impairment
It has been said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.” We think training sharpens the mind.