Traffic crashes are not a new occurrence or uncommon by any means.
Statistically, any one of your company’s drivers may even be part of the 77% who have been in at least one behind-the-wheel crash. Did you know though that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 40% of crashes in the United States happen in intersections?
If we had to guess, your drivers have been routed through an intersection – most likely having even encountered one today. They’re unavoidable, making up many of the roadway features that the over 100 million everyday drivers encounter.
So, what makes intersections so dangerous? Better yet, what can you do to ensure your drivers avoid becoming part of such startling statistics and protect your company?
From 1997 through 2004, NHTSA analysis reported almost 64,000 fatalities from over 57,000 intersection crashes — breaking down to roughly 7,000 fatalities each year. The most common mistakes were failure to obey traffic signals (62%) and properly yielding to other traffic (87%).
With that being said, we know from years of data collected that, more often than not, human error caused by drivers is what makes intersections so dangerous.
96% of intersection crashes were due to driver error, with more than half of those crashes attributed to recognition error. What does that mean? Typically, this encompasses a failure to pay attention, internal and external distractions as well as failure to properly look before proceeding.
29% of intersection-related crashes were due to decision error, which includes people turning without signaling, changing lanes erratically, turning right through a wedge, forcing oneself through too small of a gap or causing oncoming traffic to brake. Your drivers have probably seen it – a driver inching their way into an intersection, waiting to turn left and only turning after the light is red. Some drivers try to run yellow lights only to find that other drivers have also run the light, causing a collision. Some drivers are moving too quickly to react. All qualify as decision errors.
Intersection crashes aren’t to be taken lightly and can prove incredibly severe. That’s why it’s time to discover how you can help your drivers avoid being part of an oftentimes preventable statistic.
To help, we pulled together seven tips to effectively help your fleet avoid intersection crashes.
Keeping your company’s drivers safe from intersection crashes is integral in maintaining and retaining a healthy fleet, but how do you protect your business? We’ve got three tips to do just that:
Driver safety policies are agreements between your company and drivers where they agree to follow your company’s safety requirements and procedures. Driver safety policies not only protect your company from incurring bad drivers but also potentially from the legal repercussions of at- or high-risk drivers.
The best way to approach a safety policy is with the mindset of continuous improvement. Maybe intersections are a problem this quarter, but red lights are next quarter’s hot-button issue. Even if reevaluating every quarter, a consistently reworked safety policy can keep drivers, companies and communities safer.
There’s nothing worse than being left in the dark, guessing what the expectations are that exist. Your employees crave answers, which is why communication is key.
Sit down with your drivers and explain the expectations you have for them as representatives of your brand. Even if they don’t drive as a primary function of their role, communicating to your employees why safe driving matters to your company and how they fit within that is essential.
Driver training can change the way you approach roadway dangers such as intersection crashes. If an employee doesn’t take to heart any of the seven tips and is caught texting at a red light, only to be rear-ended, wouldn’t you like an option before disqualifying them from driving or even working at the company?
When the employee takes that class on navigating intersections, passes a strength of knowledge test and electronically attests to that, you’re also in-turn legally protected. Never underestimate the power of administrative necessities like proactive driver training.
Now that you know about the prevalence of intersection crashes and the ways to keep both your employees and company safer, you may be wondering what next steps you should take. While intersection crashes are prevalent, they’re just the tip of the iceberg in managing your company’s driver risk.
Discover the most common violations that lead to crashes and the top violations reported by our data science team in 2022 (as well as how to prevent them) by downloading our recent study.