It seems to Biglorryblog that, compared with their European counterparts, many US truck drivers don't like wearing seat belts....how do I know this? Because the US-based global driver risk management company, DriveCam 
Maybe we Europeans are just more used to (and comfortable) wearing safety belts, like my mate Rod Collett at Volvo Trucks, pictured above looking nice and comfy in his high-vis red seatbelts.
Interestingly, DriveCam's analysis would appear to be at odds with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Safety Belt Usage by Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers 2007 Survey published earlier this year, which looked at seat belt use by drivers and other occupants of medium and heavy duty at 654 sites and revealed that the 2007 overall safety belt usage rate for drivers of all medium and heavy duty trucks and buses was ..errr....65%.
"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's survey inspired us to conduct our own analysis of data gathered in our repository of more than seven million risky driving behaviors and we found that seat belt usage rates were even lower among drivers already exhibiting other risky driving behaviors," Del Lisk, vice president of safety services at DriveCam tells BLB. "In other words, drivers taking more risk behind the wheel were less likely to buckle up. Despite legislation, awareness campaigns and corporate mandates that drivers buckle up, only 35% of drivers in video data we reviewed were constantly wearing seat belts." Now click through here for more....
Exceptional forces such as hard braking, sudden acceleration, swerving or collision trigger DriveCam's in-vehicle video event recorders to capture critical seconds of sights and sounds inside and outside vehicles. Certified Driving Risk Analysts review saved events, assign them a risk score and forward with comments to fleet managers so they can discuss the events with drivers and provide coaching to improve driving behavior. Analysts note whether or not drivers are wearing seat belts when they review risky driving events.
"Often, our fleet customers overestimate their seat belt compliance rates and are shocked when they realize that many of their drivers routinely do not buckle up," added Lisk. "Without DriveCam's video evidence, they would have no way of knowing what percentage of drivers are actually wearing seat belts when they are out in the field."
Risk InfoCenter by DriveCam is the largest knowledgebase in the world to provide insight into risky driving based on actual driving behavior.
Comments (2)
The Americans are probably too fat for them to fit. ;-)
Posted by 8Wheels | June 26, 2008 7:40 PM
Posted on June 26, 2008 19:40
Well, I'd guess in the distribution sector they've caught a lot of people that didn't buckle up for a couple block jump from one stop to another. The highway trucking environment is a different world from the parcel carriers and LTL fleets. Most road drivers buckle up to avoid giving law enforcement an excuse to pull them over.
Posted by Don | June 28, 2008 12:09 AM
Posted on June 28, 2008 00:09