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Gallagher Associates Team Receives 'Presidents Award' |
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Novice Driver Road Map |
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Helpful Web Sites |
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Asleep At The Wheel? |
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How to Keep Your Children Safe While Driving |
Jack Gallagher, Jr. receiving the 2006 Masters Award to the Delaware Valley Advisors, L.L.C. from Mr. Randy Wallake – President of Securian Financial Group, and Bill Kavanaugh, V.P. This award is presented annually for outstanding production leadership among the 70 regional agencies throughout the United States. Delaware Valley Advisors, L.L.C. is an affiliate member of the Gallagher Group. It’s Mission is to assist clients with developing strategies of Wealth Creation, Accumulations and Transfers. D.V.A.’s registered representatives have successfully helped their clients accumulate and manage approximately a quarter of a billion dollars in savings assets and are fast approaching placing a billion dollars in life insurance for families in the Delaware Valley.
The biggest risk facing teens today is not drugs, or alcohol, school violence or
suicide, it's motor vehicle crashes. These crashes are the number one killer of young people;
the situation is most dangerous for 16-year olds. A study conducted by the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety found motor vehicle crash rates were decreasing for every age group except
those 16 years of age.
At 16, teens are getting their driver's license. Compared to the past, today's teens have greater
access to a car and are exposed to more high-risk driving situations, such as night driving. As a
whole, teens are more willing to take risks and less likely to use seat belts. Additionally, they
are more likely to underestimate the dangers associated with hazardous situations and are less able
to cope with such dangers.
A decline in driver's education has made a bad situation worse. According to the American Automobile
Association (AAA), because of budgetary cutbacks and reduced federal aid, only half of the high schools
in the U.S. offer driver education, down from about 75% in the mid-1970s. Traditionally, states have
required beginning drivers to have very little experience before obtaining a driver's license. It is
becoming increasingly clear to licensing agencies and highway safety experts that the only thing
standing between a teen and a car is the parent's written consent on the learner's permit and access
to an automobile.
In an age of two-parent working families and single parent families, the newest driver in the family
is viewed as a convenience for running errands, picking up siblings or driving themselves to
activities and school.
What is the answer to the novice driver problem? It is a question that is gaining more and more attention
as states pass graduated licensing laws mandating, among other things, that parents spend a minimum number of hours
practicing with their novice driver.
The majority of parents are concerned about their children and want to make sure they are safe behind
the wheel. But they face many constraints to providing adequate practice.
Lack of time for both adults and novice drivers.
Pressures of work and day-to-day living.
Lack of knowledge, tools and resources on how to provide guided practice.
The stress of spending time with the teen.
That is why the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) produced The Novice
Driver's Road Map with support from the UPS Foundation. The Novice Driver's Road Map is designed to
provide the missing link in a novice driver's education - practice. This booklet helps an adult coach
guide the novice driver through a series of eight suggested driver or practice sessions starting with an
empty parking lot and progressing through driving on a freeway. The Coach's Game Book contains important
information on being a positive role model, what mistakes to expect, how to select a driving school
and a teen/parent contract.
NETS is offering The Novice Driver's Road Map to employers that want to keep health care costs down as
well as to licensing agencies, highway safety organizations, judges, schools, and Safe Communities
coalitions.
The Road Map and Game Book have been reviewed by a panel of highway safety and driver education experts,
field tested with a focus group of parents and pilot tested in three states. Feedback indicates the
booklet is effective due to its user-friendly, step-by-step instructions.
| Link | Site Description & Uses |
| OSHA.gov | Occupational Safety and Health Administration website. In addition to a wealth of research information, the site is useful for checking an insured’s OSHA violations. This data can be searched by a named insured under “inspection data” and then clicking on “established search” |
| Ambest.com | AM BEST website to check a carriers rating |
| IRMI.com | IRMI for insurance topics and issues |
Sleep is a Critical Factor In Highway Safety
Being overextended at trying to “do it all.” Often means operating on less than the optimal amount of sleep. It’s a common complaint in the modern world, with full-time work, domestic duties, and a few minutes of exercise, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. And to make matters worse, more productive hours are being “robbed” from us because of the congestion on many of our nation’s roadways. Employees are sitting in traffic and experiencing significant travel delays as they commute to work or drive for work.
Sleep is a critical factor in highway safety. As Americans become more sleep-deprived, the number of crashes on our roadways involving drowsy drivers is increasing. Fatigue contributes to more than 100,000 crashes each year. The result is often fatal for sleeping drivers and those in the vehicle they hit.
Nearly three-quarters of adults in America (71%) drive a car to and from work, and many are fatigued drivers, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2002 Sleep in America poll. More than one-fourth of survey respondents said they have driven drowsy to or from work at least a few days a month, 12% drive drowsy a few days a week and 4% said they drove drowsy every day or almost every day.
Sleep deprivation and fatigue makes lapses of attention more likely to occur and may play a role in behavior that can lead to crashes attributed to other causes. Fatigue slows your reaction time, decreases awareness, impairs judgment (just as alcohol or drugs) and can lead to falling asleep at the wheel. Taking over-the-counter or prescription medications or drinking alcohol, on top of being fatigued, will seriously compound an already dangerous situation.
Employers can incorporate fatigue management in to safety programs and implement a proactive training program to educate all employees about the risks of driver fatigue and how to avoid it. Through instruction, they learn the risks of driver fatigue and what actions to take if they experience fatigue when tired. NETS recently developed Asleep at the Wheel? A Wake Up Call for Drowsy Drivers, a CD-Rom-based program with awareness materials and information to help all employees to be more alert behind the wheel whether they drive for work or to and from work.
