ROCKVILLE, MD—The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) released Distracted Driving, the final installment in a series of safety bulletins celebrating National Safety Month.
The month-long celebration is the National Safety Council’s annual safety awareness program; June 26-30, 2011, is On the Road, Off the Phone Week. “While distracted driving has always been a concern in the construction industry,” notes Tom Skaggs, Chairman of MCAA’s Safety and Health Committee and Vice President – Safety for the Murphy Company, “The additions of text messaging by cell phone and smart phone technology, with its ready access to the Internet and social networking, has made distracted driving much more dangerous.” He cites 2009 statistics, saying that, “More than 5,400 people died in crashes linked to distracted driving, and thousands more were injured in those crashes.”
The Distracted Driving bulletin reviews ways in which workers can protect themselves from distracted driving hazards related to phones, then goes on to describe the other hazards with which they may be faced, such as making adjustments to radio or GPS settings, or distractions from passengers.
“Distracted driving has become such a problem that OSHA has established an initiative to attack distracted driving issues,” notes MCAA Director of Safety and Health Pete Chaney. He adds, “The agency is partnering with government and industry, as well as the general public, to provide key information and tools to assist in combating distracted driving hazards.”
The Distracted Driving bulletin is available at www.mcaa.org/safety, where additional information from MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative is highlighted. In addition, MCAA offers a wide variety of safety publications specifically for the mechanical construction, service and plumbing industries at www.mcaa.org/store.
For additional information about MCAA’s Safety Excellence Initiative or the new bulletin, please contact Pete Chaney at 301/869-5800 or [email protected].
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