On or Off the Job–Vehicle Crashes Have Big Costs for Employers

Many individuals never realize the financial impact of vehicle crashes on employers. However, a report just released by the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS), shows the significant costs to employers that direct crash-related expenses have whether the crash happened on or off the job.

The report, Cost of Motor Vehicle Crashes to Employers-2015™, details the costs to employers of traffic crashes occurring on and off the job, and shows an annual cost of nearly 47.5 billion dollars in crash-related expenses, including medical care, liability, lost productivity, and property damage.

Nearly half of this cost resulted from off-the-job vehicle crashes.

The report shows that more than 1.6 million work days were lost due to traffic crashes, with nearly 90 percent of those days attributed to crashes that occurred off the job, involving employees and/or their dependents.

• Speeding resulted in $8.4 billion in crash-related expenses,
• Distracted driving was close behind, at $8.2 billion,
• Driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs resulted in $6.0 billion in losses, and
• Not wearing a seat belt added $4.9 billion to the total.

The good news? Developing a proactive traffic safety program is one of the best ways to control costs from workplace vehicle crashes. Besides keeping our roads safe, protecting employees from a motor vehicle crash injury can be a profitable investment of time and resources for any organization.

Proven success has been found in initiating “work-life” programs for all employees, especially programs that use workers as channels for getting traffic safety information to their family and community.

One easy, low cost campaign that has been around for some time is an employee wide seat-belt use campaign. (Get your free toolkit at 2seconds2click.org.) Other topics to consider are: trip planning, vehicle safety checks, defensive driving techniques, fatigue management, and driver’s behavior.

Evergreen Safety Council’s EverSafe Driving program addresses all of these topics, and more. The EverSafe Driving program can be presented by an experienced Evergreen Safety Council trainer at your location and customized to match your vehicles and driving situations, or you can send an employee through the Evergreen Safety Council Instructor Development course so they can become
qualified to conduct classes for your organization.

Help protect your most valuable resource (your employees) with defensive driving training through ESC’s EverSafe Driving Program. Contact us for more information.

Contributed by Tom Odegaard, President/Executive Director Evergreen Safety Council