There is very little question that each of us are at risk when we get in a car and drive. Afer all, don’t we all think that it’s every other driver on the road who is a bad driver – it’s never us? And in that mentality, we may always be vigilant and watchful for hazards, but that does not mean we will always be unscathed.

All drivers are unpredictable, whether they are good drivers or not. And it is certainly one thing if we are in an accident in our personal vehicle while running personal or family errands. But what about those who drive a vehicle that is part of a corporate fleet, such as a delivery truck, a cement truck or a tractor-trailer? Sure, we all know that we may have a personal level of liability if we are at fault in an accident, but can you imagine the financial risks if one of your company drivers was at fault?

[Image courtesy of boegh from Flickr via a Creative Commons license]Car crashes such as this can be devastating, especially to a business when its workers are involved. More than 25 percent o f all work-related deaths are caused by auto accidents, and each death can average $500,000 in liability to the company.

Especially if there are injuries or fatalities involved in the accident, the liability could easily go beyond just the driver – it could include the business owner, the entire business and beyond. What could be a couple-hundred-thousand-dollar accident from a personal standpoint – which most  auto-insurance companies will pay – can turn into potentially millions of dollars in claims against the fleet insurance, the business and the driver’s and business owner’s personal insurance policies. As much that could be at stake here, would you be willing, as a safety professional or CEO, to consider implementing a safety standard for your fleet drivers if there was one available?

Hello, ANSI Z15.1.

In the March issue of Professional Safety magazine (of which you can catch snippets here), Brian Hammer, Stephanie Pratt and Peggy Ross wrote a lengthy article discussing the Z15.1 standard and how it could address the safety risks and concerns surrounding commercial fleet driving.

It is a pretty long article, so I won’t bore you with a full summary of the piece (it is included in the sample linked above), but I can go over the highlights involving the description of the ANSI/ASSE Z15.1 standard. Why was this piece written? Well, partly for information and education, of course; but it also was written to drive home a point about automobile crashes involving  commercial vehicles or workers driving cars on work-related business. In a seven-year span ending in 2010, more than 25 percent of all work-related deaths were due to car crashes, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And when you put those more than 10,200 car-crash work-related deaths and add up an average $500,000 potential liability for a business (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), then one can easily see that car crashes can cost businesses $5.1 billion over seven years, or more than $700 million per year.

ANSI/ASSE Z15.1 is not necessarily new, but it is something that apparently needed to be returned to the forefront of the minds of safety officers and members of the C-suite in companies because these car-crash deaths have not really dropped in recent years. The standard was wrfitten in 2006 and it’s long-form title is Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations. The standard was pretty vague at first to give businesses general guidance but provide them with much flexibility in adhering to the standards as their businesses needed and could afford. But in recent years, the standard has evolved, and now the latest 2012 version of Z15.1 has more specific guidance in some aspects and provides for performance measurements.

From a 30,000-foot viewpoint, the standard addresses seven major areas, which makes it quite comprehensive in dealing with auto driver safety. The seven major areas of focus are:

* Expectations, applications and purpose of the standard;

* definitions of terms in the standard so there is no ambiguity;

* how to manage, administer and provide leadership in this area;

* the environment in which the standard operates;

* standards for driver safety;

* standards for vehicle safety; and

* how to report and analyze incidents that are subject to the standard.

You are invited to read more about ANSI/ASSE Z15.1 and see how it could apply to your company’s fleet. The more companies that become aware of and apply this standard, the better the chances of reducing the number of work-related auto-crash fatalities, and the better the chance that these workers will return to the workplace intact and productive.