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Earlier this month our PRECO team went to India to showcase at this year’s International Mining & Machinery Exhibition (IMME). The exhibition is a four-day event held at the New Town Eco Park in Kolkata, India, with over 300 exhibitors, 6,000-plus business visitors, and over 11 countries representing including Australia, China, and Italy.

The occurrence of accidents happening with equipment whose radar based object detection systems have been disabled are on the rise. Though many workers and operators feel they can rely on passive equipment like camera/monitor combos and mirrors to guide them on a worksite active systems, like PRECO’s PreView® Radar technology, is the only viable way for an operator to be truly aware of their surroundings.

With deadlines to meet, customers to please, and budgets that can often be tight at best, safety can easily take a back seat to cheaper, faster short-cuts. Anyone who has ever dealt with the aftermath of an on-the-job accident or fatality will be the first to attest that not only should safety be in the front seat, it should be the driver.

New highway regulations in Texas have fleet managers looking for ways to equip specific heavy haul trucks with roll-stability systems and blind spot protection. The new regulations, as laid out in Texas Senate Bill 1524, address heavier oversize and overweight intermodal vehicles that carry oceangoing or international trade containers within 30 miles of a port of entry or international bridge. SB 1524 mandates that roll-stability systems and blind spot protection be installed on these vehicles as a precondition of receiving an operating permit from the Texas Department of Transportation.

Safety is paramount to the manufacturers of heavy duty equipment and automobiles today. Innovation is driving the car industry to go well beyond the simplicity of seat belts and automatic brake systems. More and more, advanced technological systems are becoming common place in our cars, trucks, and transportation equipment.

Following a recent tradeshow, conversations revolved around street sweepers and the hazards that come with them. In an effort to highlight the safety issues that are associated with this common piece of equipment, we wanted to take a moment to draw attention to the safety solutions that are available.

The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration attributes 94 percent of all crashes to human error, mostly associated with recognition and decision errors. Research and testing done so far on autonomous vehicles point toward a much safer world. But making vehicles smart enough to navigate an incredibly complex world is not happening overnight.

PRECO^® Electronics, the global leader in heavy-duty collision avoidance solutions, has started accepting nominations for its seventh annual Excellence in Safety Award.  The PRECO Excellence in Safety Award recognizes leaders of change that address safety with vigor, while using advanced safety initiatives and thinking outside the box to make roadways and worksites safer.

 After receiving a record number of nominations in 2016, PRECO awarded the Solid Waste Association of North America’s (SWANA) David Biderman and City of Oxnard Environmental Resources Division’s George Van Hemert with the Excellence in Safety Award.  Both recipients demonstrated unparalleled commitment to safety to distinguish themselves as leaders in their respective markets.

A study published in Journal of Accounting and Economics came to a conclusion that won’t surprise many people in heavy-duty industries: When you try to meet or beat earning expectations or reach other lofty financial goals, employee safety can suffer. How can managers solve this three-dimensional chess game of being fiscally responsible while ensuring the highest standards of safety? With ever-increasing pressure on profitability, it can be a very tough nut to crack.

“If managers believe that the firm may miss expectations under the ordinary course of business,” the study reports, “they may increase employees’ workloads or pressure them to work faster. In response, employees can compromise safety by overexerting themselves or by circumventing safety procedures that slow the flow of work. Second, managers may cut explicit and implicit safety costs, such as the costs of maintaining equipment and training employees, in their attempts to report higher earnings.”

By David Biderman, Executive Director & CEO of
The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)

When I tell people who are not in the solid waste industry that refuse and recycling collection is the 5^th most deadly job in the United States, they are almost always amazed. The public doesn’t realize that thousands of men and women are putting their lives on the line each day to take care of their garbage.

But to those who work the routes or send employees out each day, the dangers of the job are far too real. In 2016 alone, SWANA recorded 46 worker fatalities in the US, half of which were drivers and helpers out collecting garbage. It is simply unacceptable to have so many people die on the job. These are parents, grandparents, spouses, sons and daughters who are not coming home to their families at the end of the day.