Make off-the-job safety a priority, too

A recent AAA Living Article entitled “Losing the Drinking Game” had some interesting statistics:

• Every 45 minutes, someone in the US dies because of alcohol-impaired driving.
• 2.5 million parents drive under the influence of alcohol yearly
• About ½ of children killed in alcohol-related crashes are in the car with the impaired driver
• $51 billion is the estimated annual cost of drunk-driving crashes

Lest you think that this blog is about drunk driving, it isn’t. The human tragedy and DUI numbers speak for themselves.

What perplexes me is why industry and the safety profession spends most or all of its energy on safety in the workplace. The workplace accounts for only 4% of fatalities. Last year, 39,000 people died on our highways, many from alcohol but others for a host of other causes. Another 76,000-plus accidental deaths occurred in the home and public.

These tragedies do not show up in OSHA recordable rates, another reason why more proactive and meaningful safety metrics are needed. I know the old adage “What gets measured, gets done” so perhaps we need to add some process metrics that will encourage management to deal with situations where 96% of all fatalities occur.

Why would we not begin to address these off-the job-issues in some manner? Not only are industries losing the services of valued employees, but, in many cases, the company ends up paying for healthcare one way or another. I am not suggesting that managers become responsible or accountable for employee health and well-being when not at work. I am suggesting that we begin to devote some small percentage of time and resources to address off-the-job safety.

FDRsafety has trained hundreds of thousands employees in safety awareness. I can assure you that making safety a 24-7 value and getting employees to think about the consequences that their unsafe actions could have on their family resonates with the most cynical of employees. This is not behavior-based safety, nor is it preaching or telling them what they “have to” do. Respect for people and talking to them in an honest and forthright manner helps them come to understand that “wanting to” be safe for the sake of their families can do much for on and off the job safety.

It is high time the safety profession started to infuse “safety is a 24-7 value” into their safety awareness training.