Recently I had the opportunity to attend the Rocky Mountain Region Safety Rendezvous in Blackhawk Colorado. While is was a bummer that I did not win the Regional Safety Director award, the trip was still worth it in that they had excellent presenters speaking on various safety and legal topics.
My top three favorites were:
- Doug Marcello of the law firm of Marcello and Kivisto. This firm specializes in CMV accident defense. The firm offered several white papers and three DVD’s addressing subjects such as Accident Response, Trucking Defense 2.0 and Trucking on Trial. Information from these items will reshape how we document and process accidents so we are prepared in the event that we are ever defendants in a case. I have always said that we have 5 minutes at an accident scene in which we can gather information for our defense. The information and training received will make sure that we use that time to the absolute best of our ability.
- Scott Cornell of Travelers Insurance spoke on cargo theft. Did you realize that since 2010, food cargo theft has been number 1 at 29% of all cargo thefts? Ninety percent of all cargo theft occurs within 200 miles of the pickup point. The top cargo theft states are: CA, AZ, TX, IL, WA and FL with the thefts occurring mainly in truck stops, road sides and drop yards? Thieves look for unmarked trailers, they check reefer temps to determine their victims, and they watch drivers to see if they look over their equipment when they park. These say that a driver that does not look over their equipment at the end of the day, will not look it over at the beginning of their day. This will result in the theft not being discovered until the truck has moved down the road, thus making discovery and prosecution more difficult. Yet another reason to do a proper post trip and why we want you to walk around your equipment EVERY time it has been out of your sight.
- My third favorite was a presentation by the attorney that handled the NTSB investigation for WalMart in the Tracy Morgan accident. The insight into the case itself and the NTSB investigation procedures was very interesting and enlightening.
The training and materials provided will affect how the safety department address accidents and our exposure to claims of all types. We want to continually improve what we do and how we do it. This can only occur as we learn from experts how to minimize our exposure to risks. Each one of us has a role in improving our operation. What can you do to make us better?
By Frank Molodecki, CDS
