Oil Field Truckers get a handle on safe driving practices

The oil and gas industry is littered with potential hazards. Heavy equipment, whirring pieces of drilling pipe, high-pressure fracturing and hydrogen sulphide gases are just some of the safety issues workers must contend with. Yet the single most dangerous thing they face on a daily basis has four rubber wheels. “It seems banal, but vehicle collisions are the single largest cause of fatalities and injuries in our industry,” says Murray Sunstrom, executive director of the Canadian Petroleum Safety Council. “It’s shocking, considering the things we do as an industry.”

The shocking statistics Vehicle collisions are the number one cause of death in Alberta workplaces, responsible for more than 30 per cent of all fatalities. In 2001, for example, 36 people were killed in work-related vehicle incidents (23 of them involving single vehicles).

Although 9 of the 36 fatalities were in the upstream petroleum industry, a Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta report notes that transportation and communication companies, governments, education and health organizations, construction firms, and wholesale and retail sales companies also register high WCB claims for vehicle collisions. In 2002 motor vehicle incidents accounted for more than $46 million in WCB-Alberta claims. The frequency of claims is decreasing in other provinces but rising in Alberta, which has one of Canada’s highest collision fatality rates.

Typical examples of vehicle incidents in the workplace include workers being run over by trucks, large vehicles rolling over and road workers being struck by passenger vehicles. But a large number – perhaps the majority – of these incidents occur during the drive to and from the job site. Many of the causes are ones that afflict all drivers, for example, driving too fast or aggressively, following too closely, running off the road, turning left in front of oncoming traffic, inattention, fatigue and impairment from alcohol or drugs.

Workers in many industries and many parts of Alberta face additional challenges such as driving on rough, remote, unfamiliar and poorly maintained roads at all hours and in all weather – sometimes at the end of a long shift. The trucking industry, obviously, has a high percentage of its vehicle incidents on the job. From 1995 to 1999, nearly 2,600 large trucks were involved in casualty incidents in Alberta. During this period, 30 truck drivers were killed, primarily in single-vehicle rollover incidents. Alberta Transportation statistics show that while alcohol was unlikely to be involved in these crashes, fatigue was often a factor; when it was, such incidents tended to occur between 11 p.m. and 11 a.m. Nearly 60 per cent of these casualty collisions involving a large truck occurred on dry roads, and only 28 per cent on snow, slush or ice.

Vehicle collisions are the number one cause of death in Alberta workplaces, responsible for more than 30 per cent of all fatalities. Taking action Alberta’s trucking industry is working hard to reduce its collision rate. For example, the Alberta Motor Transport Association has seen a significant increase in the number of trucking companies joining the provincial Partners in Injury Reduction program and then proceeding to complete the Certificate of Recognition program. As a result, WCB-Alberta returned more than $3.8 million last spring to trucking companies participating in these programs.

It has also rewarded an improved trucking safety performance by lowering the industry’s projected premium rates by 7.6 per cent for 2005. “I think it’s a combination of things,” says Spencer Hempstock, who oversees Alberta Motor Transport Association safety programs. “Drivers are more aware, and companies are becoming more involved in training and other programs.”

  In 1999, the Alberta Motor Association launched Mission Possible @ Work, an employee traffic safety program that combines awareness, education and activities to combat unsafe driving habits. To date, more than 200 companies with 25,000 employees have enrolled, with strong participation from major industries such as petroleum, trucking, forestry, chemical and manufacturing. The program takes about 18 months to complete and addresses such topics as speed, inattention, animal hazards, fatigue, and winter and holiday driving. “The level of awareness about road safety has risen to the point where industry is doing a lot of work to deal with the issue,” says Mission Possible @ Work coordinator Sandra Rourke. “The focus is on changing the attitudes and behaviours of drivers. The emotional part of this issue is also very important – getting across the message that vehicle collisions affect us all.” Alberta’s upstream petroleum industry has been one of the most proactive sectors in addressing safe driving in the workplace. Canadian Petroleum Safety Council initiatives include some hard-hitting billboards and a series of“Transportation Tuesday” bulletins focusing on specific issues such as seatbelts and road rage. Recently the council developed a checklist for companies to fill in after a collision. The purpose of the checklist is to collect detailed data that can be shared industry-wide. “Surprisingly, we as an industry don’t even collect standard collision data,” says the Petroleum Safety Council’s Murray Sunstrom. “We’re starting to look at this issue more comprehensively, from a more evidence-based perspective. We know that speeding, for example, can be an issue, but it’s just one symptom of a larger disease. We need to address the larger picture.”

To help gather and assess accurate, useful data, the Petroleum Safety Council has enlisted the aid of Dr. Louis Francescutti and Dr. Peter Rothe of the Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research based at the University of Alberta. “No one is actively keeping track of why these things are happening,” says Francescutti, the Centre’s director. “Our approach is to analyze information and then go to the literature to see what works, apply it and then get feedback. Our goal is to develop the world’s most sophisticated ground traffic surveillance system.”