Some in the groundwater industry view driving to the jobsite as the most dangerous part of the day simply because they can’t control the behavior of other drivers.
Dangerous driving behavior led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to designate April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
In 2022, 3308 people were killed by distracted driving. Developing a distracted driving policy is key, but if another driver is distracted, it still puts you in the crosshairs of a possible accident.
Due to the dangers of other drivers, suggestions from insurance companies, keeping an eye on drivers’ habits, deterring theft, and for other reasons, the industry has seen the use of dash cams rise in recent years.
“For us, the reasoning was to protect ourselves from being falsely blamed for any incidents that occur on the road. Good or bad, we want to know what exactly led to any incident we have,” said David Messina, CWD, CSP, director of health and safety at Yellow Jacket Drilling Services LLC in Phoenix, Arizona.
Messina’s company fleet began using dash cams in 2020 and uses this information to update its training program as needed and share lessons learned with their other drivers in the field. It’s helped Yellow Jacket focus on weak points in its drivers’ habits.
“Having videos with our equipment and our employees makes them much more effective and relatable for our guys,” said Messina who shares that the return on investment was almost immediate and the cameras have already paid off for the company.
“We have had a vehicle incident or two every year where another party tries to blame us for an accident, and the video clearly shows us not being at fault. With the videos these cameras capture, it’s very easy to dispute false allegations. Unfortunately, these allegations seem to be getting more and more commonplace with people trying to commit insurance fraud.”
Yellow Jacket’s safety department brought the dash cam idea to company leadership in 2019. The company had some accidents that year which the safety department felt the insurance company settled on just to close the claim despite Yellow Jacket not necessarily being at fault.
“After discussions with the insurance company, they made it clear that it was hard for companies to win claims where there were differing opinions on the facts of the accident,” Messina shared. “They felt it was better and more affordable in the long run to just settle these types of claims.
“After some internal discussion, we felt it would be prudent to obtain video of any incident we can. At fault or not, the information obtained is valuable and helpful.”
Industry companies may need to work through employees feeling comfortable with dash cams recording their driving. Invasion of privacy has been at the center of longstanding dash cam debates in various industries.
Nevertheless, Messina says there are many great dash cam options on the market.
“My only recommendation would be not to overthink it,” he said. “They are a great investment and will pay for themselves quickly.”
— by Mike Price