Safety Material for the Trucking Industry
June 2019

pic of open trailer and boxes falling. This is a hazard

Secured Freight is Stacked Straight

Material handling can cause injuries to drivers, loaders and unloaders. Strain injuries can result from manually rearranging pallets that should be mechanically moved. Workers also risk being hit or crushed when they have to move improperly stacked loads. Clear communication about efficient and safe load placement is the key to preventing injuries.

Tips to live by

Image of box truck showing a serviceable deck

Traction Slips When Distraction Grips

A 28-year old straight truck driver badly hurt her ankle when she slipped from a cargo box.

The driver's job required climbing up and down from a cargo box all day to deliver goods. During a stop, the driver got in the box and moved some freight near the door to load onto a hand truck parked on the ground. When she stepped down from the rear deck she became distracted, lost footing, and slipped off. She landed on her left ankle. The ankle twisted and swelled up in sharp pain.

Tips to live by

Secure Your Load Day is June 6th

National Secure Your Load Day takes place each year on June 6^th. The observance reminds us about the importance of making sure drivers safely secure their loads before getting on the road.

Secure Your Load Day began with activist Robin Abel, the force behind Maria’s Law, which criminalizes improperly secured loads. Abel pushed for the law after her 24-year-old daughter Maria Federici suffered near-fatal injuries which left her blinded after unsecured particleboard from a rented trailer smashed through her car’s windshield on I-405 in Renton. Abel’s work has spread, attracting over 40 other states and territories to participate in Secure Your Load Day.

Image of WSP doing inspection on the road.

CVSA International Roadcheck is June 4-6

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance will hold its 32^nd Annual International Roadcheck inspection and enforcement blitz from June 4-6. This year’s emphasis will focus on steering and suspension compliance, which ranked 6^th among last year’s out-of-service violations. Steering and suspension systems are vital to vehicle and road safety. According to CVSA President Chief Jay Thompson of the Arkansas Highway Police, “Not only do they support the heavy loads carried by trucks and buses, but they also help maintain stability and control under acceleration and braking, keeping the vehicle safely on the road. Furthermore, they keep tires in alignment, reducing chances of uneven tire wear and possible tire failure, and they maximize the contact between the tires and the road to provide steering stability and good handling.” Previous Roadchecks have spotlighted categories of violations that include hours-of-service, hazardous materials/dangerous goods, cargo securement, and tire safety.

EDUCATION & TRAINING

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Why have a safety program

This interactive course teaches how having a safety program can keep your trucking workplace safe, productive, profitable, and clear of compliance violations.

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Jump force

Know the forces involved in exiting your truck cab or trailer. Try our force simulator.

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Prevent falls from ladders

When it comes to ladders, rushing can get you a lot of pain. Use this interactive training to review safe ladder techniques.

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Conduct an Injury Investigation

Root cause analysis is a process for finding the what, how, and why something happened to prevent it from happening again in the future.

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MOST COMMON INJURIES

Slips, trips, falls

Strain & sprains (musculoskeletal disorders)

Getting struck by or against an object

The Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis (TIRES) project was developed by the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) program of Washington's Department of Labor and Industries.

The Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis (TIRES) project team and the TIRES steering committee are working with the Washington State trucking industry to identify causes for the most frequent injuries to develop effective strategies for preventing them. Free safety training materials are available at KeepTruckingSafe.org.

The TIRES steering committee is made up of a diverse group of professionals that includes: drivers, safety people from large and small trucking companies, labor and business associations, insurers and a representative from a publicly funded truck driving school.

Funded in part by a grant from CDC NIOSH 5 U60 OH 008487. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of CDC/NIOSH.

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