When it comes to driving in Canada and some parts of the U.S., there is a stark difference between winter driving and summer driving. But they are not so different as to have one type of seasonal driving be necessarily safer than another. They are different in their risks to drivers and passengers. But certainly in the summer, with many families hitting the road for vacation destinations and sharing roads and highways with those who work, summer driving has its own share of risks and hazards that maybe are not seen as much in the winter when it is very cold and not many people venture out for business or pleasure.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user Matt Lemmon via a Creative Commons license]Car accidents and related injuries or deaths are indeed a reality for drivers, whether on the job or off. However, taking home the same driving practices that keep you safe at work can certainly go a long way to keeping you safe during the summer months when vacation travel occurs.

Many companies and government agencies have been on the forefront of educating supervisors and employeees about safe driving habits while on the job so freight, cargo and human assets are kept safe as much as possible. In Canada, especially, there has been a years-long initiative to promote safer driving, and much of that is covered by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Commerce as well. But while there is plenty of literature and educational videos and seminars about safe driving for work, many of the guidelines that are encouraged about work-related driving can be applied to personal and family driving situations as well.

It can be easy to turn off the work person when it’s the weekend or you are on vacation, but if there is one thing that should not be shut off on personal time is the ability to drive safely. In many ways, your family and friends in your car are more valuable assets than anything your company will have you transport, so it would make sense that the guidelines you use at work can easily be applied at home.

I am giving you this pep talk as a preface to what is to come. This is the time where I love to refer to a 2010 report submitted by WorkSafe Alberta that goes into providing guidelines, advice and guidance on safe driving habits for workers not only to be in compliance with workplace health and safety regulations and legislation, but also to encourage those workers to drive in a similar way in their own vehicles around their families and friends.

There is a startling number in the 2010 report, which of course should be updated, but it sends home a pretty stark reality – just in Alberta alone, an auto accident occurs about once every five minutes. That translates to 12 accidents per hour or almost 300 accidents per day. At that rate, there is usually an average of one death and about 65 injuries every day on Alberta roads. And if we can presume that the rate is pretty similar acrosss all provinces, you can imagine the personal toll this has on people in Canada. It is hard to point to how many of these accidents involve vehicles and/or drivers that are on work-related business vs. personal errands or travel, but it is safe to say that the risk of harm is real and is reasonably high. Safe driving practices no matter whether you are at work or on vacation will help mitigate the risk of you being involved in one of these crashes.

In the next couple of posts, I will delve a little more deeply into this 2010 report to serve as a bit of a reminder to managers, supervisors and employees about existing safe-driving protocols and procedures and develop a framework for safe summer driving not only on the clock, but also on personal time. Since it is hard to distinguish between work-related driving and personal driving in car carshes, let us just go with the assumption that all driving has its share of risks and that it all should have safe practices in place regardless of the type of driving or what passsengers there are in the car.

After all, we all want to enjoy the summer and be able to go to work again – or be able to go to work every day, and then return home to the family every night. There is nothing more important than that, and it should always be our motivation every time we get behind the wheel whether as an employee or as a husband, wife, or parent.