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HOW TO DETERMINE VEHICLE
ACCIDENT PREVENTABILITY:
This guide coincides with the National
Safety Council's concept of preventability. It can be used to driect
accident review boards, to explain the juding of vehicle accidents
and to indicate the need for further training. The rules for juding
preventability are necessarily strict since they are not based on
who was primarily at fault but instead follows the concepts of
defensive driving.
A defensive driver is one who is
careful not to commit driving errors. The driver makes allowances
for the reactions of other drivers or pedestrians, and does not
allow the lack of skill, improper attitudes of others, weather
hazards, or road conditions to involve him or her in an accident. A
defensive driver stays constantly on the alert, making sure to have
ample room to escape from accident producing situations. He or she
recognizes hazardous actions far enough in advance to avoid a
collison, and makes sure other drivers are aware of his or her
presence. HE or she yields the right-of-way whenever it is necessary
to do so to avoid an accident. Defensive driving can be defined in
three words: Courtesy, Concentration and Control.
Any accident involving a vehicle which
results in inury or alleged injury to anyone, damage or alleged
damage to any property (including the company's) must be reported.
Accidents must be reported regardless of who was hurt, what property
was damaged, how slight, where it occurred, or who was
responsible.
PREVENTABLE OR
NON-PREVENTALBE:
An accident is non-preventable only
when the vehicle was legally and properly parked, or when properly
stopped because of an officer, a signal, stop sign or traffic
condition.
It should be the objective of any
person discussing accidents to obtain as many facts as possible and
to consider all conceivable angles. A primary objective is to
instill in the minds of drivers an attitude of driver awareness.
This will help them develop an awareness of the hazardous actions of
others so that it will be difficult for other motorists to involve
them in an accident. Preventability does not take into account
adverse weather conditions, the nitwitted actions of other drivers,
or any other such excuses. Professional drivers are expected to
drive in a manner which allows them to avoid conflicts when they do
arise. It should be relatively easy on reading an accident report to
classify the type of accident, and spot the reason for considering
it preventable or non-preventable. The rules are necessarily strict
because there must be a clear-cut definition which considers only
the accident involved together with the circumstances surrounding
it. Whether a driver has a 25 year safe driver award or whether he
or she started driving the day before has no bearing on whether an
accident is or is not preventable. It will only confuse the issue to
try to judge the other motorist. Taking a fair attitude does not
mean leniency. If a driver was cleared and knows the accident could
have been avoided, he or she will lose respect for the
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