NTSB details how Walmart addressed driver fatigue after Tracy Morgan crash — and how other fleets can follow suit
Summary
“This crash is very important to highlight because it demonstrates that even a very large carrier like Walmart that employs more than 7,200 drivers, that’s extremely safety conscious, can fall victim of the dangers of fatigue,” Fox said. “Our investigation determined that the driver had made a personal trip during his off-duty time to travel 800 miles, or 12 hours, from his terminal in Delaware to visit his home in Jonesboro, Georgia,” Fox said. At a time when data abounds on just about everything and everyone, it’s best to leverage that information to avoid hiring drivers who are prone to risky behavior, which includes fatigued driving according to Harry Crabtree, corporate vice president of risk management & safety at Paladin Capital. Make sure the minimum driver qualification standard you have in place in your organization sufficiently screens out applicants whose record indicates the pattern for a willingness to accept risk. “What happens here is that if there’s a critical event that’s initiated, it will lock in a two-minute segment of that incident and it’s immediately forwarded to the telematics system where the safety representative will take it from there.” “All of these are great things that can be part of a fatigue management program,” Price said.