NTSB’s Bruce Landsberg Discusses Driver Risks

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MINNEAPOLIS — A prime govt from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board cited fatigue, impairment and distraction as key contributing elements to freeway fatalities, and harassed to a bunch of trucking security executives that the company’s aim is to work with all stakeholders to make roads safer.

“We on the NTSB do advocacy, which is one motive why we’re speaking to you,” NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg stated throughout an April 4 session on the 2023 Security, Safety, Human Assets Nationwide Convention & Exhibition. “We don’t report back to anyone. That irritates quite a few folks in Congress as a result of we get to say what we predict is occurring, and we attempt to hold the politics to a minimal.”

Landsberg harassed that fatigue stands out as a chief security problem.

“Fatigue — it’s an enormous downside,” he stated. “It impacts all modes of transportation, as a result of we have now people doing what we do.”

To offset these dangers, Landsberg touted lively security techniques obtainable on many vans and passenger automobiles.

“We on the NTSB are a giant believer in expertise,” he stated. “Computerized emergency braking works. AEB is a reasonably easy form of expertise that may be a fairly well-proven system. As you get new vans, please specify and guarantee that they put it in as a result of it’s an amazing backup for a driver’s second of inattention.”

Following his nice presentation NTSB Vice Chair Bruce Landsberg meets with the Minnesota Trucking Affiliation. You probably have any nice pictures or experiences to share about your time this week in Minneapolis please tag us utilizing #SSHR23 we might love to listen to about your time with us! pic.twitter.com/tCIa8pUh2L

— ATA Security Mgmt. & Transpo. Safety Councils (@ATA_SMC_TSC) April 4, 2023

Landsberg famous that People have an angle once they get behind the wheel that an accident is not going to occur to them. “After we get in automobiles we’re fairly sure that we aren’t going to have a crash,” he stated. “All people that’s had a crash — each single one throughout all modes — is sort of sure that once they climb aboard, it wasn’t going to occur to them.”

He famous that deadly accidents on U.S. highways price People a complete of $340 billion in 2019.

“The numbers, they’re staggering, and it’s not simply the vans which might be inflicting the issues,” he stated. “It’s often the fool drivers that encompass you.”

Landsberg outlined a wide range of do’s, don’ts, and philosophies geared toward decreasing crashes and saving lives. For one, he stated many drivers consider they’ll multitask whereas behind the wheel, however they can not. “We don’t ‘multitask’ — we change forwards and backwards between duties. So while you’re doing a number of issues within the cockpit, or inside a truck, it doesn’t work properly as a result of you’re going from one activity to a different. This has been confirmed again and again.”

Landsberg additionally urged motor carriers and drivers to debate and be taught from errors or occasions that might have result in a crash, however didn’t. As a substitute of sweeping near-misses beneath the rug, he urged utilizing these cases as studying experiences.

“Report it. Let’s determine what occurred, and repair it,” he stated. “Let’s not punish folks for coming ahead and saying, ‘I screwed up.’ ”

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