UPS involved in 39 fatalitly accidents last year

[browntruckmechanic]

At last Thursday's PCM. We were told that last year UPS drivers were involved in 39 fatality accidents. One involved 18 month old toddler to here in Mesquite one of our own Feeder driver. Next time you are behind the wheel take a little extra time to clear the intersection, or maybe a little longer lead time between vehicles. What price do you want to put on a life?

[fredly00]

You know what, management constantly jams down our throat how horrible we are with all the accidents we have.

We all do our best to avoid them, although we are made to feel that we intend to get into accidents.

We are well below the national averages for car accidents,

-Pretty damn good statistics, considering the 19,000-59,000 miles an individual driver may run in a year.(based on 52 week working)

-A center of 30 drivers 570,000-1.7million miles a year

-I don't know how many centers there are in the US, but lets say conservatively 200 centers? thats almost 114,000,000-340,000,000 MILES

So in several Billion miles, we were in 39 fatal accidents? while a death is always a tragedy, we are really amazing.

[Megansman]

From the press release:

UPS's 102,000 drivers worldwide are among the safest on the roads, logging more than 2 billion miles a year while averaging less than one accident per million miles driven.

39 fatalities rounds off to about zero... unless it happens to you -- drive Like Dale and bring it in safely...

[ImpactedTSG]

what pisses me off is to see a UPS truck or any truck that weighs 10000+ pounds doing well over the speed limit. It seems that most of the highway accicents involve a tractor trailer. Usually when they hit something, it's not pretty.

[brown67]

Lost a feeder driver here last week. Made a left turn in front of another truck. Feeder driver wasn't wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the truck. Died from his injuries shortly after the accident. Slow down a beat. Look at your surroundings and WEAR your seat belt.

[DS]

I dont understand...why no seat belt...after all the training
And a left turn in front of a truck...avoidable?

[RockyRogue]

Originally Posted by brown67

Lost a feeder driver here last week. Made a left turn in front of another truck. Feeder driver wasn't wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the truck. Died from his injuries shortly after the accident. Slow down a beat. Look at your surroundings and WEAR your seat belt.

Heard about that accident, 67, just didn't know what happened. Thanks for the information. Thoughts and prayers to the family

Originally Posted by DS

I dont understand...why no seat belt...after all the training
And a left turn in front of a truck...avoidable?

I agree on both counts, DS. It makes no sense the feeder driver would make a left in front of an oncoming truck. Seatbelts are MANDATORY in the Rocky Mountain District, too. I had a safety manager tell me when I was in the helper class, "Don't wear your seatbelt and you will NOT see another delivery." -Rocky

[brown67]

It is sad. I don't know why a feeder driver would do that. It's not like a package driver who is in and out of their truck all day long. Hope it's a wake up call for those drivers not wearing their seat belts.

[woodsy]

my heart goes out to his family and co/workers. i was guilty for years of not wearing a seatbelt, going from stop to stop saying ah just a few yards here and there, but after going to feeders and seeing some real carnage out there,i put it on always,we should all buckle all the time our car, pkg car or feeder.

[Channahon]

Originally Posted by fredly00

So in several Billion miles, we were in 39 fatal accidents? while a death is always a tragedy, we are really amazing.

What a horrifying statement to make. 39 lives are 39 families that have lost someone they love.
And everytime they see a UPS vehicle they will be reminded that is how they lost someone in their family.

[dave_socal]

Originally Posted by browntruckmechanic

At last Thursday's PCM. We were told that last year UPS drivers were involved in 39 fatality accidents. One involved 18 month old toddler to here in Mesquite one of our own Feeder driver. Next time you are behind the wheel take a little extra time to clear the intersection, or maybe a little longer lead time between vehicles. What price do you want to put on a life?

Another parrot for UPS meaningless stats. Do you know whom was at fault in those 39 incidents? No. Have you driven package cars or feeder rigs for pay? No. Of the 90,000 trucks ,vans, tractors UPS uses daliy how many have been poorly maintained? hmmm? A ratio of 39 fatal accidents in 50 U.S. States sounds fair to me taking into consideration all the variables involved. So next time you feel like posting more cliche's about driving safety maybe you should take some time to "clear" your mind and double check your work. We all need to do our jobs as professionals but who needs more platitudes?

All I have to say is until one of the 39 was your personal friend you'll never know what it feels like- This year in our center we lost one of our own. It makes you realize how dangerous our jobs really are. We get use to the daily routine and can forget sometimes what can actually go wrong. Ever death is a trerrible thing and in the end it doesn't matter who was at fault the result it is still the same. Thoughts and prayers should go out to all the famlies and friends who have lost a loved one.

Originally Posted by dave_socal

Another parrot for UPS meaningless stats. Do you know whom was at fault in those 39 incidents? No. Have you driven package cars or feeder rigs for pay? No. Of the 90,000 trucks ,vans, tractors UPS uses daliy how many have been poorly maintained? hmmm? A ratio of 39 fatal accidents in 50 U.S. States sounds fair to me taking into consideration all the variables involved. So next time you feel like posting more cliche's about driving safety maybe you should take some time to "clear" your mind and double check your work. We all need to do our jobs as professionals but who needs more platitudes?

[browntruckmechanic]

Dave. I was stating a fact and yes I do know the reasons behind several of the deaths. Feeder driver in Mesquite, bobtailing back from air port was rear ended at high rate of speed by Nissan maxima by 2 drunk teenagers. In Oklahoma.
Motorcyclist doing wheelie lost control was ran over by a suburban, the suburban was propelled into our equipment. In both case UPS driver were not at fault, but still a death was involved. In the case in Oklahoma UPS is being sued by the families of all parties. Why would you ask? Fast easy money. All I stated was that WE all should slow down a little.

[dragracer66]

Originally Posted by dave_socal

Another parrot for UPS meaningless stats. Do you know whom was at fault in those 39 incidents? No. Have you driven package cars or feeder rigs for pay? No. Of the 90,000 trucks ,vans, tractors UPS uses daliy how many have been poorly maintained? hmmm? A ratio of 39 fatal accidents in 50 U.S. States sounds fair to me taking into consideration all the variables involved. So next time you feel like posting more cliche's about driving safety maybe you should take some time to "clear" your mind and double check your work. We all need to do our jobs as professionals but who needs more platitudes?

Dave....Sound's like your one of those big rig wannabe's driving with one hand on the wheel and the other on the cb mic. Who are to say who has driven what and for what, most mechanic's can drive better than most of you guy's!!! Our equipment is the best maintained equipment in the industry. Remember that the next time you won't take a trailer down the road when you have a marker light out or need a tire aired up because it feel's soft. You probably have never drove for any another company because if you refused to take a trailer for one of those reason's you would be sent home. Maybe next time one of those 39 fatalities will be somebody you know and you'll change your tune. GET A LIFE!!!! People's lives are involved!!!!

[dave_socal]

Originally Posted by dragracer66

Dave....Sound's like your one of those big rig wannabe's driving with one hand on the wheel and the other on the cb mic. Who are to say who has driven what and for what, most mechanic's can drive better than most of you guy's!!! Our equipment is the best maintained equipment in the industry. Remember that the next time you won't take a trailer down the road when you have a marker light out or need a tire aired up because it feel's soft. You probably have never drove for any another company because if you refused to take a trailer for one of those reason's you would be sent home. Maybe next time one of those 39 fatalities will be somebody you know and you'll change your tune. GET A LIFE!!!! People's lives are involved!!!!

One mechanic sticks up for another big surprise! Make some sense next time when posting? What are you talking about being sent home for pulling a trailer with D.O.T. violations? Get a life? Read my previous post it still stands. I dont need another "wannabe" driver telling me to do my job correctly. You may know how to fix'em but don't show your ignorance of package or feeder driver jobs by telling me you're a better driver. Your right, I've never driven for any other company but you know something at 22 when I started driving I was trained well and after 19 years safe driving I've managed to keep my job without YOU( a mechanic) telling me buzzwords of driving safety. Finally I dont wish for anyone to be involved in a fatal vehicle accident that's why I consider myself a professional not a wannabe and if you do your job right we'll have no problems but I don't go giving presuming advice to any mechanic about thier work environment and that was my original point.

p.s. I got a life a brown one dont ya know.

[tieguy]

Originally Posted by fredly00

You know what, management constantly jams down our throat how horrible we are with all the accidents we have.

We all do our best to avoid them, although we are made to feel that we intend to get into accidents.

We are well below the national averages for car accidents,

-Pretty damn good statistics, considering the 19,000-59,000 miles an individual driver may run in a year.(based on 52 week working)

-A center of 30 drivers 570,000-1.7million miles a year

-I don't know how many centers there are in the US, but lets say conservatively 200 centers? thats almost 114,000,000-340,000,000 MILES

So in several Billion miles, we were in 39 fatal accidents? while a death is always a tragedy, we are really amazing.

Fredly when you throw that blame around don't forget to give the teamsters their fair share. They love to put out all the accident and injury statistics and make it sound like UPS is the unsafest place to work in the world. The teamsters have run national ads in national newpapers in the past making this case.

[local804]

Originally Posted by tieguy

Fredly when you throw that blame around don't forget to give the teamsters their fair share. They love to put out all the accident and injury statistics and make it sound like UPS is the unsafest place to work in the world. The teamsters have run national ads in national newpapers in the past making this case.

Tieguy-
Ups has twice the national average of Osha reporatable injuries. You know and I know this number should be higher if they didn have guys come in and clean windows at night for a month. When they place people on light duty and they dont miss a day, it is NOT reported to osha. Do you think that UPS is one of the safer jobs? The numbers dont lie, it is what it is.

[Mystakilla]

Originally Posted by DS

I dont understand...why no seat belt...after all the training
And a left turn in front of a truck...avoidable?

Some people just dont like to wear them and thats all there is to it...

[paganpink]

If someone is coming in and cleaning windows every night because of an injury then they are on TAW. Those are called DART injuries and are classified as OSHA code 3's. They aren't hiding anything from OSHA in trying to let the person earn their regular amount of pay doing a job that is less physical in some way from their regular assignment that continues to let them work at their assigned rate of pay. Disability pay is much less than a persons average pay. OSHA has no problem with that, and the CHSP programs, where OSHA prints guidelines that recommend hourly co-chaired safety committees, regular meetings, concerns logs in the areas, etc. etc. are all modeled (by the governments own admission) to be virtually identical to UPS's own program we developed in the 90's and OSHA then copied because they were so impressed by it. Also, although some areas have a higher frequency than the OSHA average for "service workers" be aware that that that category includes all sorts of jobs dramatically different than our own, including uniform cleaning service pick up/delivery drivers, hotel and motel housekeeping maids, etc. all lumped in together. By the way, even with those huge differences in phsicality between those jobs and our own, at the rate of decline in injuries UPS has continued to attain over the last five years, we will meet or beat even THAT funky "industry" average within the next 2-3 years.

[Sammie]

My friend is a feeder driver who was driving right behind the Colorado feeder driver who was ejected from his vehicle a couple of weeks back. The feeder driver who died was turning off to a rest area so perhaps at that point he may have taken his seat belt off. Let this be a lesson to us all.

[browntruckmechanic]

Well Dave let me ask you a question. Let's say you are doing everything right, and it's the other nut jobs out there on the road that don't show you any respect in that 80,000 lbs doesn't exactly stop on a dime. What is slowing down going to hurt? What is a is cruising at 68 mph verses 65 mph going to do for you other than increase your time by 3 Min's over the course of an hour. You get paid by the hour. Who cares if you take 1 hour to go across town or 3 hours to go across town.
And as for as mechanic taking up for mechanic, drivers take up for drivers, loaders take up for loader, etc... It happens because everyone in the same job tends to know what the other persons going through.

And as far being safety minded.
In the course of the last 6 months while covering on outbounds, while trailer guy is a lunch.
I've noticed that the majority of drivers that run the stop sign outside the shop are feeders, while talking on there cell phone, which by the way is against UPS