MORR™ : An International Comparisons Review
United States
Motor vehicle-related highway crashes are consistently the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the United States, accounting for nearly one-fourth of all fatalities. Although annual numbers of work-related fatalities have generally declined over the past decade, fatalities due to motor vehicle-related highway crashes have increased steadily over this period, finally declining slightly in 2000. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/toplst.html.The US tends to use the term ‘occupational vehicle-related highway crashes’ followed by fleet safety.
In 1998 NIOSH produced a publication called “NIOSH Alert – Preventing worker injuries and deaths from traffic related motor vehicle crashes”. This document includes statistics on various factors related to fatal injuries e.g. BAC, crash rates by age of worker, industry sectors, collision types, vehicle types (trucks, cars & others), occupation types, road types, and pedestrian accidents. Statistics are derived from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also includes regulations from the federal highway administration and NHTSA (under the US dept of transportation).
The document concludes with some recommendations to companies to develop safety programs. These recommendations are not detailed and the emphasis is on performance, skill-based, vehicle maintenance and looking towards regulations from commercial vehicle safety programs. It lacks recommendations concerning awareness raising and attitudes.
Recommendations to researchers include classifying work-related miles driven, identifying risk sectors and other factors, studying issues on optimal use of training and communication strategies, reviewing existing regulations, detailed data on causes of work-related motor vehicle crashes.
NIOSH is currently updating the NIOSH Alert MORR with extensive changes to provide current statistics and to give more practical guidance to companies to manage this risk. Recommendations are to be directed at employers and the emphasis is on providing “consensus” and best practice guidance rather than advocating the need for more regulations. Private correspondences indicate that the US looks to the UK, Australia and Europe respectively for information as they feel that these countries are leading the way.
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has also produced a document called ‘What do traffic crashes costs? Total Costs to Employers by state and industry’. Motor vehicle crash injuries on and off the job cost employers almost $55 billion in 1994. in 1994, motor vehicle crashes killed an estimated 2,000 people while they were working and injured 323,000. Savings from traffic safety programs are potentially as high as $50,000 per million vehicle miles of travel.
The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS www.netsnational.org), is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing employers of the dramatic costs resulting from motor vehicle crashes. NETS assists employers to implement policies, institute on-site employee programs, and conduct community activities that focus on highway safety issues affecting employers’ costs.
NETS reports five major traffic safety issues which contribute to motor vehicle crash deaths:
- Sharing the road with trucks,
- Use of safety belts, child seats and airbags,
- Aggressive driving,
- Inattentive drivers,
- Impaired driving caused by alcohol, stress and even medical drugs.
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