Sixty-three percent of approximately 350 collisions analyzed within the industry were deemed preventable.
“Safety first” is a motto that many companies within the waste and recycling industry follow. But despite various efforts to be safe on the road and in facilities, the industry remains on the list of top 10 most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
The waste and recycling industry involves the use of large vehicles and heavy-duty equipment, which can be dangerous if workers aren’t paying attention at all times. And the slightest distraction, such as a cell phone, can lead to an incident or injury.
Vehicle collisions in the industry and other industries like trucking are not uncommon, and companies are constantly working to reduce the number of collisions that occur. In an effort to identify the current collision trends and to help customers understand what their drivers could be doing better to prevent collisions, Lytx, a video telematics provider, has conducted a study that examines how causes and scenes of collisions vary between industries.
For the study, Lytx reviewed 2,150 events that occurred in the second half of 2017. The company found that the waste industry, compared to other industries included in the study, had a high rate of preventable collisions, which, per the standards of the National Safety Council, are defined as incidents where the driver failed to do everything that reasonably could have been done to avoid a collision.