Top Vehicle Safety Toolbox Talk Topics Your Employees Need To Hear

Vehicle safety is a critical concern for construction companies, as accidents can result in significant costs and devastating injuries. Regular training through vehicle safety Toolbox Talk sessions is essential for preventing confusion and potential accidents.

The average motor vehicle accident costs employers approximately $16,000 in property damage and lost productivity. If an injury results from the accident, you must also factor in medical expenses and legal fees. Next thing you know, that number rises to an average of $74,000. Costs can exceed $500,000 when there is a fatality.

Vehicles can be the cause of injuries even outside collisions, fingers get slammed in doors, loads fall off trucks, ankles get twisted jumping down from tailgates, and more.

Combine that with the fact that motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of death, and it becomes very clear that training your workers on vehicle safety should be a top priority for your company.

Why Is Vehicle Safety Overlooked as a Toolbox Talk?

Vehicle safety discussions aren’t often covered as a Toolbox Talk topic because we don’t tend to consider them a part of a construction site. However, your employees come into contact with vehicles throughout the workday for a variety of reasons:

1. To transport employees to and from the jobsite
2. To transport materials and equipment
3. Other trades with vehicles on-site
4. Material deliveries to the site
5. Public use of personal vehicles nearby

Construction workers come in contact with vehicles frequently, and the seriousness of a resulting injury is potentially fatal. These two factors make vehicles a high-risk hazard.

Fortunately, most accidents are preventable by providing your employees with proper training.

Vehicle Safety Toolbox Talk Topics

The fact that construction workers are exposed to vehicles in such a variety of ways means you should be training them on the hazards that arise based on the type of exposure.

One vehicle safety discussion covering vehicle safety in general — while a good start — is not enough to prevent future accidents.

Breaking the topic of ‘vehicle safety’ into subcategories and providing training on each one separately is an effective way to make sure your workers get comprehensive safety education.

1. Drivers

In the eyes of OSHA, the jobsite extends to vehicles used for work-related matters.

Accidents covered under OSHA standards include:

• Employees driving company vehicles
• Employees driving personal vehicles for work purposes
• Passengers in company vehicles

If an accident occurs during an employee’s commute to or from work — even in a company vehicle — OSHA determines those trips are non-work related. Otherwise, if they were injured in a vehicle accident while on the clock, OSHA considers it a recordable case.

Beyond any required certification or licensing requirements, you should address the following topics during your safety meetings:

• Defensive driving
• Distracted driving
• Mobile phones
• Difficult weather conditions
• Managing blown / flat tires
• Accident reporting
• Emergency Response

2. Materials and Equipment

Just because you aren’t driving a vehicle doesn’t mean you can’t be injured by one. Many construction employees spend at least part of their day managing materials and equipment in, on, and around vehicles.

Whether they are running materials to a site, transferring materials in the back of their pickup truck, pulling a trailer, or unloading a manufacturer’s delivery, they all involve exposure to vehicle hazards.

Training employees on everyday circumstances, such as how to properly dismount from a tailgate, lowers the chances of injury during these seemingly monotonous but potentially hazardous tasks. It’s important to note that the accidents listed below are all types of incidents classified as vehicle accidents in the eyes of OSHA:

• Securing loads
• Tarping loads
• Using Trailers
• Unloading material from vehicles
• Receiving deliveries

3. Other Vehicles On Site

No jobsite is complete without some sort of vehicle on it. It could be as simple as another trade leaving on their lunch break or a steady flow of concrete trucks pouring a foundation.

Every single construction worker on site is responsible for their own safety. Meaning that while a driver is responsible for not running people over, individuals are also responsible for making sure they themselves aren’t run over.

In short, everyone who is on-site needs training on how to avoid being hit, run over, or backed into by vehicles they are not in control of. These Toolbox Talk topics are a great way to achieve that:

• Safe practices around backing vehicles
• Proper use of hand signals for vehicle operations
• Safety protocols for working around dump trucks
• Hazard awareness when concrete trucks are operating

4. Working on or Near Public Roadways

Working in the vicinity of the general public immediately introduces more hazards. Obviously, there is a specific level of care that a construction site must put into keeping the public safe from the hazards they create, but in this case, it’s the other way around.

Working on or near public roadways is an additional exposure to construction workers caused by vehicles driven by the public. The general public lacks the additional training that construction workers have and may be thrown by an unexpected construction site in their path.

While traffic control workers should have more specialized training, it is important to train your entire workforce on the hazards of working around general public drivers if they are going to be working on or near public roadways. Here are some good topics:

• Warning systems
• Traffic control person
• Pedestrians

These topics are particularly crucial because public drivers may not be familiar with construction site protocols and may react unpredictably to construction zones. Training all workers on these hazards helps create a safer environment for both construction personnel and the general public.

Where Do You Get These Safety Training Sessions?

Having access to comprehensive safety discussions listed above is a feature we offer our clients here at SafetyHQ. However, if you are not yet a client, you should check with your local trade association, as they often have this kind of information available to their members.

Good, Better, Best in Vehicle Safety Training

The best scenario is that your company has a specific vehicle safety program customized to the needs of your company integrated into your safety manual and program.

If you aren’t quite that advanced yet, you should aim to deliver and track formalized driver training and follow up with Toolbox Talk refreshers.

If you are just getting started, you need to conduct weekly toolbox talks and cover vehicle hazards as some of your topics. SafetyHQ offers comprehensive plans that include creating, delivering, tracking and managing vehicle safety Toolbox Talks to help companies implement effective safety training programs.