Do You Have a Super Bowl Transportation Game Plan?

By Leah Walton, NTSB Safety Advocate

Super Bowl LIV is almost here! Whether you’re a diehard 49ers or Chiefs fan, or you simply watch for the commercials and halftime show, the play clock is just about to hit 0. For many football fans, driving will be part of the game plan both before and after the Super Bowl, regardless of if they’re driving over 3,000 miles to Hard Rock Stadium or simply going across town to a playoff party. Either way, safe transportation plans must be part of every driver’s Super Bowl game plan.

Football is a game driven by statistics. As Chiefs’ Head Coach Andy Reid takes in stats for his Super Bowl game plan, consider these highway safety facts as you prepare your own playbook.

• Each year, 6,400 fatal crashes involve a drowsy driver. Making sure you have adequate rest before getting behind the wheel should be an essential part of your plan.
• Every day, nearly 29 people in the U.S. die in alcohol-impaired crashes – that’s 1 person every 50 minutes!
• In 2016, 44 percent of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs.
• In 2017, 3,166 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. That’s 9 percent of all highway fatalities that year!
• It takes just 4 to 5 seconds to quickly look at that text that popped up on your phone. If you’re driving 55 mph, you can drive the length of a football field in that time!
• Traffic deaths increase 41 percent on Super Bowl Sunday due to impaired, drowsy, and distracted driving.

So, what should your Super Bowl transportation game plan look like? First, drive sober or designate a sober driver. Recognize that even a moderate amount of alcohol or certain drugs will make driving unsafe. If you don’t have a designated driver, a taxi, public transportation, or rideshare charge will be a minor cost compared to a DUI—or worse. Second, don’t drive fatigued. Immediately after the game and before work the next day, check yourself to see if you are rested enough to drive safely. If you got less than 7 to 9 hours of sleep, recognize the need to take breaks, take a nap, or find another mode of transportation. Third, don’t drive distracted—the postgame highlights, commentary, and selfies can wait until you safely arrive at your destination.

Whether you’re rooting for the 49ers, Chiefs, or simply a good game, make sure you have a designated sober driver in your Super Bowl lineup, and follow this gameday rulebook!

 

 

Global Road Safety Leaders of the Future

By Nicholas Worrell, Chief, NTSB Safety Advocacy Division

Last week, the NTSB hosted a group of students from around the world who are studying or pursuing higher education degrees in traffic safety. They came to us through the International Roads Federation (IRF) Fellows Program, which works to develop transportation safety leaders worldwide.

The students were from diverse cultures—Lebanese, Iranian, Japanese, Colombian, Libyan, Mexican, Palestinian, and Brazilian—but they had one thing in common: they were all studying at universities in the United States.

It was an honor to be chosen by the IRF to help develop and grow these fellows. The group got to hear from Jim Ritter, Director of Research and Engineering; Lisandra Garay-Vega, Supervisory Transportation Specialist; David Pereira, Vehicle Factors Investigator; and several of our lab experts.

In transportation safety, we often ask how we can change safety culture? This question applies in one way to organizations, looking at how a company’s culture might influence a driver’s actions of a driver. This kind of safety culture is widely studied but involves only the minority of accidents/crashes. Most crashes involve everyday drivers operating personal motor vehicles. How do we change the safety perspectives of everyday drivers? We start with investing in young leaders like those who joined us during the visit.

In the United States, we lose more than 40,000 lives every year as a result of accidents and crashes in all modes of transportation. Worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, we lose more than 1.35 million people every year on the roads, alone. When it comes to traffic safety, to truly change our safety culture, we must start with the younger generation. We must invest in ways to teach young children how to be safe on the roads long before they get behind the wheel for the first time. And we must invest our time in working with students like the IRF fellows, supporting their efforts to design transportation systems that protect all road users, not just those inside a motor vehicle.

At the NTSB, we strive to encourage and develop young safety leaders—teaching them to build bridges for others to cross, lay stepping stones for others to walk upon and shoulders for them to stand upon. Our core value of excellence goes beyond our central mission of issuing safety recommendations; it also applies to excellence in the service of others. In advocacy, it demands we pass along information to young leaders who will carry the mantel with a goal of safer transportation worldwide. We wish them well and lots of success.

 

Episode 30: Member Jennifer Homendy

In this episode of Behind-the-Scene @NTSB, Member Jennifer Homendy shares highlights from her first year at NTSB and the transportation safety improvements she hopes are accomplished in 2020. Member Homendy was first featured on the podcast shortly after she began her tenure as the 44th Member of the NTSB in Episode 20.

 

Member Homendy’s full bio is available here.

 

Get the latest episode on Apple Podcasts , on Google Play, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast platform.

And find more ways to listen here: https://www.blubrry.com/behind_the_scene_ntsb/