Mastering Incident Reporting: A Step-by-Step Guide

Comprehensive Guide to Incident Reporting and Collision Policies

In this episode, Chris Harris, also known as Safety Dawg, provides an in-depth overview of incident and collision reporting procedures. He emphasizes the importance of investigating all types of incidents, including near misses and equipment damage, for future prevention. 

Chris highlights the advantages of using ELDs for monitoring hard brakes, discusses the necessity of a detailed collision policy, and explains what should be included in a collision kit. He also covers the critical data points to track crashes for analysis, such as time, location, weather conditions, and driver details. 

Viewers are encouraged to text 'PREVENT' to 365 364 0714 to receive a sample letter to drivers regarding the crash preventability. 

00:00 Introduction to Incident Reporting

00:09 Importance of Investigating All Incidents

01:10 Creating a Collision Policy

01:32 Equipping Trucks with Collision Kits

02:34 Training Drivers for Accident Scene Documentation

03:22 Issuing Preventability Letters

03:53 Tracking and Analyzing Crashes

06:12 Conclusion and Contact Information

Chris Harris
Safety Dawg Inc.
905 973 7056
Chris@safetydawg.com

Keeping it Safety Dawg Simple!
#trucksafety #truckinsurance #truckpodcast

Do you need a "Truck Driver Safety Policy?" Get it today! https://safetydawg.com/policy

Transcript

Chris Harris, Safety Dawg 1: 0:23

Incidents and reporting. The whole process and the procedure. Yes, the government tells you to keep track of this stuff. So you need to be investigating all collisions. All near misses. All equipment damage and all cargo damages. You've got to track all this stuff. You've got to investigate it so that you can try to prevent the next one. So you've got to investigate the ball and You've got to have a policy that says, Driver, you've got to report all of this stuff to us, no matter how small. And, you've got a big advantage at the moment, if you are running ELDs, because most ELDs include a hard break alert. And, if you're getting a hard break alert, that is a near miss. And it needs to be investigated. So no matter how small, even if there is no accident, crash, or situation that has evolved, you need to be investigating it so that hopefully you can prevent. Further ones. Also, you need a company policy. Yes, you're going to hear this throughout the training, that you need a policy manual for your drivers. And one of the policies that you do need is a collision policy, and it should state what the driver needs to do at the scene. And part of that collision policy is going to be a collision kit. And this kit, you've got to put it into each truck so that the drivers have it when they need it. So put a collision kit in each truck. Often the insurance companies, most of the insurance companies, will give you one for free. But if they don't, you need to have a collision kit that contains the reporting process, Who to call? Where does the driver get help from? 24 7. Don't forget that your drivers might be out there after business hours, so you want to give them The support that they need in this situation. A 24 hour number that they can call and reach you. The form that they've got to fill out because they need to be completing something at the accident scene so they don't forget the important details. So they need a form and the form may have guidance like witness statements and things like that, license plate numbers, Maybe a diagram, all that kind of stuff. And then how to photograph the scene of the crash. Drivers are really good at getting up nice and close and taking a picture of the damage. But that's not always the best thing when it comes to investigation. You need, when you're investigating, you need to see the whole scene, the surrounding area. items that the driver may not have thought were important, but they are. So you've got to teach the drivers how to take good photographs at the scene because it's not intuitive. In other words, it's, it's not common sense how to take really good accident crash photos. So you need to train that. We're going to have another training on how to do accident scene photos for you. You need to issue a letter. Whether this crash is preventable or non preventable. And to help you with that, if you text the word PREVENT to me at 365 364 0714, I will send you a sample letter that you can use in your company. So, uh, do that. Text the word PREVENT to 365 364 0714 and I'll send you a sample letter that you can use. You've got to be tracking crashes for analysis. So, How do you do that? Well, you gotta track things like day of the week, time of the day, hours of service, how many hours was the driver driving at the time of the crash, the driver's age, the driver's experience, the location, was it preventable or non preventable, what were the weather conditions, the road conditions, What month was it? What was the road type? Meaning, was it a rural road? Was it a highway? Was it a four lane highway? 16 lane highway? Etc. Uh, the vehicle type. If you've got more than one type of vehicle in your, um, in your company. Whether dangerous goods were released. The collision type. Was it a rear end? Was it a lane change? Etc. The control device. Was it a stop sign? Yield? Was there no control device? Uh, the speed limit in the area of the crash. The length of service of the driver. There is all kinds of stuff that you should be tracking. The driver's experience. Did the driver get a ticket? The activity the driver was performing. Had they just left the scene or were they loading the truck when the accident happened? Were they unloading? Etc. What terminal? If you've got more than one terminal, what terminal is it and which dispatcher was involved? And what's the radius around either the pickup or the delivery site? Often crashes happen very close to pickups and deliveries. You'd be surprised. And what is the overall cost of the crash and the driver status? Meaning, was the driver an employee, an owner operator? A driver for an owner or operator, or were they a misclassified driver such as Driver Inc. Um, you need a spreadsheet, so create yourself a spreadsheet so you can track all that information. And that's very quickly the basis, the beginnings of incident reporting, the process and the procedures. And don't forget if you want that sample letter, about preventability that you need to be issuing to all your drivers, text the word PREVENT to 365 364 0714 and I'll make sure I take care of you. That is this episode of the CVOR and National Safety Code Podcast. My name, your host, is Chris Harris, Safety Dawg. Reach out to me if you need some help. Be happy to take your calls. All right, that's it. See you in the next training.