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WORKER FATIGUE AND VEHICLE CRASHES IN THE OIL/GAS INDUSTRY

by Ronald R. Knipling, Ph.D. President, Safety for the Long Haul Inc. December, 2021 An oilfield services company in South Texas employed just one mechanic to maintain its entire vehicle fleet, which included tractor-semitrailers, pickup trucks, and other work vehicles.  We’ll call him Mr. Alvarez, not his real name.  Mr. Alvarez worked 78-hour weeks, on […]

Suicide By Truck

by Ronald R. Knipling, Ph.D. President, Safety for the Long Haul Inc. October, 2021 A 2014 investigational analysis of large truck fatal crashes in Sweden (Bálint et al., 2014) attributed 17% of them to suspected suicide.  The two major suicide scenarios were cars (or other light vehicles) crossing the highway centerline and pedestrians stepping out […]

WHICH OF FIVE FACTORS AFFECTS DRIVER FATIGUE & ALERTNESS THE LEAST?

by Ronald R. Knipling, Ph.D. President, Safety for the Long Haul Inc. August, 2021 Here’s a quiz with just one question:  Which of five factors affects driver fatigue (i.e., drowsiness) and alertness the least?  Your five choices are: Individual differences in susceptibility to drowsiness Amount of prior sleep Time-of-day Prior continuous time awake Prior continuous […]

What’s Your Safety Personality?

Ronald R. Knipling, Ph.D. President, Safety for the Long Haul Inc. Do you have a safety personality behind the wheel?  Yes!  Everyone has a safety personality.  That’s because everyone has a personality, and several universal personality dimensions affect safety behavior.  Driver personality is the strongest of various personal factors affecting safety outcomes, in my opinion.  […]