Doula’s duties include driving
October 04, 2011
Photo from HeartSongBirth.com
Abby Mikkelson helps women and their families during labour, birth, and early days with a baby. She packs what she needs to care for herself, so she’ll be ready to care for others – including a change of clothes, healthy snacks, water, and non-slip shoes for the hospital delivery room. As a doula, she’s available on call 24/7.
“Labour can start at any point during the day or night, but I often find myself being awakened with a phone call in the middle of the night,” says Abby, who drives her own car to homes and hospitals.
Critical car care
Abby’s car is an important part of the equation, so she takes good care of it – with regular oil changes, tune-ups, enough air in the tires, and at least a quarter tank of gas. And she makes sure she knows where she’s going.
“Knowing the route to their home ahead of time is imperative,” she says. “This helps me to know which lane goes faster, where to turn, if I should avoid certain streets due to more dangerous intersections.”
Even though Abby is self-employed, she faces the same road safety issues as other people who drive while working for employers. They are known as the “grey fleet” – defined by this WorkSafe Magazine story as “workers who drive a vehicle during the course of their work, but for whom driving is not a primary duty.”
Photo credit: t. magnum on Flickr
Focusing on the grey fleet
Deirdre Holmes is with the Occupational Road Safety Partnership – and she says this group of workers hasn’t always been on the radar like they are today.
Now the safety community is focused on it because 30 people in the grey fleet died each year in BC from 2005 to 2007 – making MVI the second highest cause of worker death after asbestos exposure. The cost of WorkSafeBC motor vehicle claims was almost $31 million in 2007.
In 2009, the BCAA Road Safety Foundation and WorkSafeBC created a partnership to solve this tragic problem. Deirdre manages its fleet safety and grey fleet safety programs.
“The workplace extends into the worker’s vehicle, which is actually a workplace on wheels,” Deirdre said, inviting employers to get in touch with her if they had questions about implementing their own grey fleet programs.
Drive safely as the temperature cools
Whether or not you drive at work, check out Shift Into Winter – with tips on winter driving safety from the Occupational Road Safety Partnership.
Have any other road safety resources to recommend? Please share them here.
Motor vehicle deaths on decline in Canada
February 15, 2011
Queen Elizabeth Way, outside Oakville, Ont. Photo by: chapstickaddict on Flickr
I first heard the news from my Driver Safety Canada group on LinkedIn. Transport Canada announced: “Lowest death toll on Canadian roads in almost 60 years”.
In 2008, 2,419 road users died in Canada, down from 2,761 in 2007. I thought about why these numbers are down (but still too high) and it seemed to me we owe credit to the people who’ve been advocating for road safety.
Who can we thank?
One important project is the Fraser Canyon Truck Safety Corridor: “BC and Canada’s first designated highway safety corridor” established in 2005. I did some writing for this project back then, and I always think of it now when I drive this highway east of Vancouver.
A highway safety corridor is “a stretch of highway that experiences a higher than average number of motor vehicle crashes, injuries or fatalities.” ICBC sponsored the installation of rumble strips on the road. The strips mark the edges of traffic lanes and they make a rumbling sound when your tires pass over them. I’m sure they’ve made a big difference and prevented lots of crashes, along with new signage, traffic routing, and road improvements.
Still too many dying
Photo credit: kazuaki.h on Flickr
That lower total of fatalities for 2008 (2419 people) is still far too high. Reducing them further is an ongoing goal shared by these dedicated drivers of change in BC:
1. DriveBC - up-to-date road conditions listed, managed by the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure – with a good Twitter feed of road safety updates.
2. Shift into Winter – a website of road safety tips from:
* ICBC
* RCMP
* BC Trucking Association
* BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation
* BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
* BC Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association
* WorkSafeBC
3. Staying safe on BC’s resource roads – A video series for for workers, created by WorkSafeBC with the assistance of the forestry, petroleum, and mining industries.
4. Preventable.ca – a community raising awareness of preventable injuries, including:
* BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation
* Insurance Bureau of Canada
* London Drugs Ltd.
* BC Ministry of Labour
* Pacific Blue Cross
* TELUS
* WorkSafeBC
This is not an exhaustive list – so please let me know who else to thank for efforts. I hope everyone who’s been working for road safety will see the Transport Canada stats, pat themselves on the back, and then keep working – along with the rest of us drivers.
Cars are workplaces too
October 14, 2010
Photo credit: post_man on Flickr
If you drive your own car at work, you’re part of what’s called “the grey fleet” and your car is considered part of your workplace. Sales people, home care workers, and house cleaners are in the grey fleet – and once upon a time so was I.
This made me especially curious about the cover article in the Sept/Oct 2010 issue of WorkSafe Magazine, which says vehicle collisions are second only to asbestos exposure as a cause of worker deaths. Read more
