Vehicle technology has come a long way in the past decade and many new features have helped reduce the number of crashes and fatalities. Systems such as electronic stability control (which will be mandated in vehicles starting with the 2012 model year), antilock brakes, air bags, and traction control have been credited with saving thousands of lives each year.

Then there are other vehicle features that are more for convenience such as Bluetooth capability, iPod connectivity, heated seats, tilt and telescope steering wheels, and keyless entry and push-button ignition.  These features aid in comfort and help enhance the driving experience. However, sometimes a new feature can add more complexities and confusion and create safety concerns. Our car team discussed this recently with the new MyFord dashboard interface, which may cause driver distraction. And now, in light of the recent Toyota recalls, there are questions about the safety of vehicles with push-button ignition.

Keyless entry is a cool, innovative feature that made its way into the luxury vehicle market a few years ago and that has since trickled down to the mainstream market even in such entry level cars as the upcoming redesigned Ford Focus, which will offer the technology as an option.

While traditional keys are universal and easy to use, a push-button ignition requires some getting used to, especially since the technology varies by manufacturer.  A recent Los Angeles Times article discussed the possible confusion and safety implications these buttons can cause. One issue that has come to light lately is how to stop a car with push button ignition if you are faced with sudden acceleration. The answer isn’t very clear, which may have been a factor in why an off-duty police officer could not stop his Lexus when it accelerated out of control causing a horrific crash last August.

Recently, Toyota announced that it will change how its start-stop ignition button operates to provide more intuitive operation in the event of an emergency.  Currently, the button must be held for three seconds to turn off the engine when the car is in motion. Other manufacturers such as Nissan, Infiniti and Cadillac allow an engine to be shut off with two quick pushes within three seconds, which is more intuitive. Right now there is no government standard for start-stop buttons, but federal regulators and industry groups are researching the option of adopting standard procedures.

In the meantime, it’s important to be familiar with how your vehicle’s start-stop button works. Check your owner’s manual for details.  If you are ever faced with an incident of sudden acceleration and need to stop your moving car, brake firmly, put the transmission in Neutral, steer to a safe location, put your car in park and turn it off. (Read: “How to stop a runaway car: Five steps that can save your life.”)

—Liza Barth

This finding addresses the common question about whether driver distraction comes from cell-phone use specifically or conversation generally. A full report appears in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, published by the American Psychological Association.

Even when drivers used a hands-free cell phone, driving performance was significantly compromised. “Cell phone and passenger conversation differ in their impact on a driver’s performance; these differences are apparent at the operational, tactical, and strategic levels of performance,” the researchers wrote.

The study, led by Frank Drews, PhD, of the University of Utah, analyzed the driving performance of 41 mostly young adult drivers paired with 41 friends who served as conversation partners. Both sexes were equally represented.

In each of three experimental conditions (conversation with hands-free cell phone, conversation in the car, or no conversation), one person in each pair was randomly selected to be the “driver” and the other the conversation partner.

Drivers used a sophisticated simulator that presented a 24-mile multilane highway with on- and off-ramps, overpasses and two-lane traffic in each direction. Participants drove under an irregular-flow condition that mimics real highway conditions — with other vehicles, in compliance with traffic laws, changing lanes, and speeds. This context required “drivers” to pay attention to surrounding traffic.

In the cell-phone conversation condition, drivers’ conversation partners were at another location. In the in-car conversation condition, partners sat next to their (simulated) drivers. In both cases, conversation partners were told to tell one another a previously undisclosed “close call” story about a time their lives were threatened.

All drivers were instructed to leave the simulated highway once they arrived at a rest area about eight miles from the starting point. Partners were told the driver had this task. The driving sequences took about 10 minutes to finish.

Drivers talking by cell phone drove significantly worse than drivers talking to passengers. The cell-phone users were more likely to drift in their lane, kept a greater distance between their car and the car in front, and were four times more likely to miss pulling off the highway at the rest area. Passenger conversation barely affected all three measures.

The authors said the problems could have stemmed from inattention “blindness,” or insufficient processing of information from the driving environment. Cell-phone users may also have found it harder to hold in working memory the intent to exit at the rest area.

Conversation analyses revealed some interesting patterns, according to the researchers. When driving tasks got more complicated, drivers appeared to modulate the complexity of their speech, as measured by syllables-per-word. Drivers also talked more when using cell phones, perhaps, the authors speculated, because they were trying to control the conversation to avoid using the mental resources required to really listen to the other person.

Meanwhile, passengers took an active role in supporting the driver, often talking about surrounding traffic. That shared situational awareness could be helpful to the driver.

Article: “Passenger and Cell Phone Conversations in Simulated Driving,” Frank A. Drews, PhD, Monisha Pasupathi, PhD, and David L. Strayer, PhD; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 14, No. 4.

One of the most common means that employers use to address this problem is to mandate use of “back support belts”. The two biggest problems with this solution are the employer expense ($15-$20 each on average), and the misinformed belief that they actually prevent back injury. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, employers that rely on back belts to prevent injury should be aware that there is no scientific evidence supporting their use. NIOSH goes on to state:

“As a result of the NIOSH review, the Institute is concerned with the potentially harmful effects associated with a false sense of security that may accompany back belt use. There is some research showing that workers believe they can lift more when wearing a back belt. If workers falsely believe they are protected, they may subject themselves to even greater risk by lifting more weight than they would have without a belt.“

Here are some keys to preventing back injuries from taking down your workers – and your bottom line.

One False Move
The back is involved in almost every move a worker makes, and it only takes one false move to trigger an injury. For example:

• Strains can be triggered by overstretching, slouching, and improper lifting. The strain problem is compounded if an employee is carrying excess body weight-especially around the midsection.
• Sprains often result from sudden movements or sudden twisting of the body. With a sprain, soft tissues in the back, such as ligaments and muscles, are wrenched or torn, causing swelling and pain.
• Overflexion, or bending too far forward, is another common back problem that results in increased pressure on the cartilage of the spine. Damage to the cartilage, or “disks,” can cause swelling and pain that can last a long time.
• Overextension, or bending too far backward, also increases pressure on the spine, resulting in potential injury.

The most important thing your employees need to know about these injuries is that they’re all preventable. To eliminate back injuries among your workers, make sure they understand the three components of back safety - posture, lifting, and fitness.

Key #1: Posture
Maintaining proper posture while working is the first lesson your employees need to learn about back safety and health.

When workers stand, they should:

• Keep their head vertical and facing the work.
• Stand straight with ears, shoulders, and hips aligned.
• Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and weight in balance.

It also helps to elevate one foot on a footrest, and switch feet from time to time. So providing simple footrests for those who want to use them can also help prevent back problems. And for workers who have to stand for long periods while working, it’s a good idea to provide antifatigue or padded mats for them to stand on as well.

When workers sit, they should:

• Keep their head vertical and facing the work.
• Sit straight by keeping ears, shoulders, and hips aligned.
• Keep thighs parallel to the floor, with knees bent about 90 degrees.
• Rest feet flat on the floor or on a footrest.

Also ensure that your workers who sit most of the day have comfortable, adjustable chairs with a firm backrest. It’s a good idea to provide lumbar support pillows for those who need extra lower back support.

Key #2: Safe Lifting
Many back injuries can be traced to improper lifting and carrying. Your workers need to use good body mechanics every time they lift, carry, and unload objects.

When workers lift, they should:

• Face the load with feet shoulder-width apart.
• Keep heels down and turn feet slightly out.
• Squat by bending at the hips and knees.
• Use leg and stomach muscles to power the lift – not back muscles.
• Maintain the back’s natural curves as they lift by keeping their head up.

When workers carry objects, they should:

• Point their feet in the direction they move and walk at a slow, steady pace.
• Take small steps and turn their body as a single unit to avoid twisting the upper body.
• Hug the load. When they set down a load, employees should reverse the lifting process, making sure to bend the knees as they lower the load and letting their leg and stomach muscles bear the weight.

Key #3: Fitness
Out-of-shape, overweight employees are more likely to have back injuries than those whose muscles are toned and whose backs don’t have to support extra pounds. As little as 10 minutes a day of exercises like stomach crunches and knee bends, combined with another 15 or 20 minutes of walking or some other physical activity, can help employees maintain a healthy weight and toned muscles.

According to OSHA, all workplace safety signs must:

• Contain sufficient information to be easily understood.
• Be concise, accurate, and easy to read.
• Identify the hazard.
• Explain in a few words how to prevent accidents and injuries.

In addition, all signs should be placed in prominent locations where workers can see them before they face the hazard.

You also need to be sure that your signs don’t themselves constitute a hazard. That’s why OSHA requires safety signs to have rounded or blunt corners and be free of sharp edges, burrs, splinters, or other sharp projections. Also, the ends or heads of bolts or other fastening devices must be located in such a way that they can’t cause injury.

Tags: Signal Words and the Major Message

Tags should be used to warn of hazardous conditions, equipment, or operations when signs, guarding, or other positive means of protection can’t be used.

All required tags must contain a signal word-for example, “Danger,” “Caution,” or “Warning” – and a major message indicating the specific hazardous condition or the instruction to be communicated to the employee.

Danger tags should be used only in major hazard situations where an immediate hazard presents a threat of death or serious injury to employees. Caution tags should be used only in situations where a nonimmediate or potential hazard or unsafe practice presents a lesser threat of employee injury. Warning tags may be used to represent a hazard level between Caution and Danger.

Here are some other OSHA requirements for accident-prevention tags:

• The signal word must be readable at a minimum distance of 5 feet or such greater distance as warranted by the hazard.
• The major message should be presented in either pictographs, written text, or both.
• Both the signal word and the major message must be understandable to all employees who may be exposed to the identified hazard.
• Tags should be affixed as close as safely possible to their respective hazards by a positive means such as string, wire, or adhesive that prevents their loss or unintentional removal.
• Tags should not be removed until such time as the identified hazard is eliminated or the hazardous operation is completed.

More than 100 separate OSHA rules feature training requirements. Some of those standards also require you to certify that training has been successfully completed and that employees have learned the skills and information they need to work safely.

For example, OSHA’s process safety management standard (29 CFR 1910.119) requires documentation of training, as does the powered industrial truck standard (29 CFR 1910.178). And DOT’s hazardous materials transportation regulations (49 CFR Parts 171-180) require you to keep records of training conducted in the preceding 3 years.

But even when documentation isn’t expressly required in the regulations, as a practical matter, you should keep records of all safety training. As OSHA points out, documentation that proves training has been conducted and that employees have successfully completed the training provides evidence of your good-faith compliance with OSHA standards in general. Documentation can also supply an answer to one of the first questions an OSHA inspector will ask when investigating a workplace injury: “Was the injured employee trained to do the job?”

Documentation provides additional benefits. For example, your safety training documentation will help you:

• Keep up to date with annual or periodic training requirements included in state and federal government regulations
• Maintain efficient training schedules and select appropriate trainers and trainees
• Identify at a glance which employees have already been trained and which training topics they have completed
• Decide if employees are qualified to work safely in their assigned jobs
• Determine retraining, refresher training, or additional training needs
• Diagnose accident and injury patterns to see where additional training may be required or where current training is failing to achieve goals

If you don’t already have a centralized training log, you need one now. Your safety documentation should be kept in such a way as to make it easily available to those who need to refer to it. Keep these tips in mind:

• Your safety training log can be maintained either as paper or computer files, whichever is easiest. But if you use computer files, make sure they’re backed up.
• Include the name and department of each employee trained, the date(s) of the training session(s), the name of the trainer(s), the topic of the training session, the length of the session (to show how much time was spent on the topic), and frequency of training required.
• Keep all training records accurate and up to date.
• Have employees sign an attendance sheet or some other document that proves they attended the session. Also, have them sign any evaluations, such as quizzes, skill proficiency tests, and so on.
• Document your evaluation method by keeping an individual dated record for each worker that lists the methods you used to verify that the employee learned what was required in training.
• Document when additional training is required to achieve proficiency, and include the date on which such additional training took place.

Failure to meet government recordkeeping requirements can result in citations and fines.  Unless you know who needs training, in what, and when, your safety training program will not be effective.  Training documentation ensures that employees have the skills and knowledge to perform their jobs safely and avoid accidents and injuries.

At Central Florida Safety Academy, we provide not only individual student completion cards for each on-site class we teach, but also documentation for each student that can be placed into your training files. Our online courses also include printable training documentation that provides all pertinent course details once the course is completed.

From the Centers for Disease Control-

During the upcoming holiday season, and all year, keep safety in mind whenever you’re on the road. Tips from CDC’s Injury Center on motor vehicle safety can help you protect yourself, your passengers, and your family and friends. Whether you’re headed around town, out of town, or out to celebrate, we wish you a safe holiday season.

Protect Your Passengers

Whenever you’re on the road this holiday season, remember to always buckle up. Wearing your seat belt can reduce your risk of dying in a crash by about half.  Also, make sure your young passengers are buckled into appropriate safety seats. The safest place for children of any age to ride is properly restrained in the back seat. Data show that child safety seats reduce the risk of death in car crashes by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers ages one to four.

Learn more about child passenger safety and CDC’s research and activities in this area.

Learn more about alcohol-impaired driving and CDC’s research and activities in this area.

Know How Much Parents Matter

This holiday season, and throughout the year, talk with your teen about the dangers of driving—and keep the conversation going. CDC also encourages you to take these steps, which have been proven to reduce serious injury and death:

• Extend your teen’s supervised driving period.
  Help your teen develop the skills he or she needs by providing as many supervised practice driving hours as possible. Include at least 30 to 50 hours of practice over at least six months. Make sure to practice on a variety of road conditions and at different times of day.

• Set the rules of the road.
  Practice driving will empower your teen. But your rules will provide much needed limits to keep him or her safe.

  Support the rules that most states have for new teen drivers by including the following:

  • Make sure your teen always wears a seat belt.
  • Limit your teen’s nighttime driving.
  • Restrict the number of teen passengers allowed in the car.

• Enforce the rules with a Parent-Teen Driving Contract ( 215KB, 2 pages) .
  Discuss your rules of the road with your teen. Talk about why they are important to follow, as well as consequences for breaking the rules. Work with your teen to draft and sign a parent-teen driving contract. You may choose to hang your parent-teen driving contract on the refrigerator door to highlight the importance of safe driving. Let your teen know that following the rules and driving safely will result in greater driving privileges.

Learn more about teen driver safety and CDC’s research and activities in this area.

More Information

• CDC: Information on Motor Vehicle Safety
• CDC: Information on Child Passenger Safety
• CDC: Information on Impaired Driving
• CDC: Information on Teen Drivers
• Protect the Ones You Love: Road Traffic Injuries
• Task Force on Community Preventive Services and the Community Guide: Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety
• CDC Podcasts on Motor Vehicle Safety

With terrorism and workplace violence in the news, workers are understandably concerned about their security. While there is no way to guard against every possibility, there are policies and relatively simple measures that employers can take to help secure a facility and protect personnel and property. Lack of adequate security can result in injury to employees and long-term economic disruption for companies. Employers need to address security concerns at the very highest level of the organization, integrate it into business operations and employment policies, and create awareness in every employee. When drafting or revising your security policy, you need to keep the following legal considerations in mind:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Act
  The OSH Act contains a general duty clause requiring employers to provide a safe workplace. This may also include the safe handling of workplace mail.
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
  You must take the disabled into account in any evacuation plans for your facility and in other security measures that affect access to buildings. The EEOC suggests that companies ask individuals to self-identify their need for assistance during an evacuation after an offer of employment has been made.
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  The ADA requires evacuation plans for the disabled, but the law does not specify them. If you administer “personality tests,” confirm that such tests are not “medical” tests subject to the ADA.
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act
  If you use polygraphs for applicants or employees, seek advice from counsel familiar with this law to ensure your company is in compliance.
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
  If your company runs security checks, be certain that your system does not have an adverse impact on protected groups and does not target a protected group.
• SARA Title III
  The federal Emergency Preparedness and Community Right to Know Act of 1986, also known as SARA Title III, contains emergency response obligations for some industries.
• Workers’ compensation
  Employees injured at work as a result of a security breach will normally have a claim for workers’ compensation benefits.
• Checks required by state law
  Some businesses, such as daycare and healthcare providers, may be required by state law to conduct background or criminal history checks.
• Privacy
  Learn about applicable privacy laws as you write your policy. Consider whether your policies or practices create a right to privacy. For example, do you permit employees to place their own lock on their lockers and retain the only key?
• Surveillance
  There is no federal law limiting the right of private sector employers to set up hidden cameras or institute other clandestine security monitoring. However, in areas where there is a perceived sense of privacy (restrooms and locker rooms), employees should be advised that these areas are subject to surveillance.
• Documents
  An emergency can expose vital records and documents needed under various regulations to loss. It is advisable to store duplicates of such records outside the plant. As you can see, there is a legal minefield to navigate in drafting a workplace security policy.

McGoey acknowledges that “its impossible to write a manual that will cover every possible scenario.” So, instead, McGoey says, you plan for a few probable ones and spend the rest of your time getting your response plan down pat. Here are some of McGoeys guidelines.

1. Build and train a team.
Responding to workplace violence starts well before any incident. Recruit a core group and train them as a response team. Include HR, security, business unit management and, if possible, a trained mediator and a crisis counselor. McGoey says you can use any number of books on workplace violence for training and bring in consultants to help build the plan, but you should also simulate scenarios. The response plan will not be general. It will specify parameters of what is appropriate when; what is tolerable behavior on the premises; what behavior will lead to removal from the premises; and when it is appropriate to disable an employee and call the authorities. The plan will assign each team member specific responsibilities because, as McGoey says, “you cant be making hand signals or phone calls during a crisis. Everyone has to know their role beforehand.”

2. Know the law. Your rights and responsibilities in a crisis vary depending on who is acting violently. Is the person an employee or a stranger? Has he threatened someone, or is he just acting erratically? Bring in local law enforcement to educate your team on the state laws that will govern your response.

3. Watch for signs. “One of the first things you hear after an incident is, He had been saying some weird stuff, but I didnt think he was serious,” says McGoey. “Even veiled threats must be taken seriously.” Make sure the team, and employees in general, know to always report suspicious comments or behavior to the CSO or HR or both, no matter how minimal the threat seems. Also watch for the common events that often lead to violence: being passed over for a promotion, marital strife and, especially, public embarrassment. CSOs should educate managers on recognizing such signals and how to respond. “There are a lot more bad managers than good ones,” McGoey says. “When someones behaving badly [bad managers] become insulting and demeaning and they criticize the person in front of their peers. They actually escalate the situation.”

4. Strike preemptively. Act to deter a crisis. Segregate bickering employeeswork spaces to minimize their interaction; give a comp day (or several) for an angry employee to cool off; or, give him a lateral transfer to eliminate a strained employee-manager relationship. Take discipline and performance reviews out of managers hands and give them to a neutral third party. McGoey says the best proactive stepone he cant stress enoughis to treat people with respect. “You dont know whats going on in someones personal life, it could be in shambles. So many people in this world are walking on eggshells. Dont demean them or embarrass them or threaten them.” Its the easiest way to make a potentially violent situation actually violent.

Still, if a person is threatening violence, put your crisis plan to use. Here are some ways McGoey says you can de-escalate a situation.

5. Remove the source. Evacuate the subject of a violent persons anger. “They cant be part of the conversation,” McGoey says. Have the source leave the room or send the person home. You can also arrange to protect that person until the crisis is diffused.

6. Mediate. A neutral person should intervene. The mediator should not be a uniformed security officer, police officer or high-ranking executive. Those people connote authority, and in a potentially violent situation, authority can make a person feel cornered and trigger violence. A good choice for this role could be a plainclothes security staffer trained in mediation and crisis counseling. “You have to have a competent person who knows how to de-escalate the situation” through dialogue, McGoey says.

7. Shift to neutral. If possible, take the person to a neutral location in the office. This further removes him from the source of his anger. This site should be chosen during planning; it should move the potential for violence away from other employees and give a pre-selected team member time to call the authorities if the team leader believes thats necessary.

8. Escort and warn, or disable. By now, the situation likely will have forked one of two ways: Either the person will have become violent, or he will have calmed down. If the person turns violent, disable him by pinning him to the ground, for example. Get police onsite as soon as possible. If the person appears to be calmed down, escort him completely off the premises. McGoey says companies often escort someone only out of the building, and then the person returns through a back door or waits for his target to exit the building. Also, you must give the person a “trespass warning.” This is a declarative statement informing the person that he is no longer welcome on the property. “Theres specific statutory language that varies from state to state that you want to use when giving this warning,” says McGoey. With that, the crisis should be defused. But you still have some work to do.

9. Stay vigilant. If the person is an employee, revoke his workplace access privileges. Cancel access cards and network accounts. Inform other tenants in the building of the incident; include a picture if possible. Brief guards at entrance gates and also surveillance staff so that theyll be on the lookout. In most cases, time calms down the angry person, so if youve made it this far without violence, chances are there will be none. But in a few cases, a desperate person will plan a return. If that happens, the more prepared you are, the better.

Central Florida Safety Academy can help your business prepare for workplace violence. Drawing from twenty five years of experience in the safety and security profession, we can review your existing plans, or assist you in creating one.