Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
Ryan Jacobson, CEO of the Saskatchewan Safety Council
Ryan Jacobson, CEO of the Saskatchewan Safety Council, was the speaker for the Independent Well Servicing Safety Standdown, held at Southeast College Estevan Campus on Jan. 8. You can read Part 1 of the presentation here.
“Why are 50% of our total collisions at intersections where somebody fails to stop? I think there’s some bad decision making happening in those circuits,” Jacobson said.
Speaking about risk tolerance, he said, “That same risk tolerance we use every day in the workplace tends to go out the window when we’re driving, because we do so much of it. Like, we’re all driving all the time. We’re driving for work, we’re driving for personal life. We’re taking kids to hockey games, or grand kids, depending on your generation. You’re going out on those roads daily, all the time, and you get complacent with the risk. You get complacent with the outcomes of that risk.”
He gave an example of three different driving conditions on Highway 39, from good to terrible. “Most people drive the same speed in all three of these conditions, and our crash risk is significantly different in these three scenarios, our stopping distance is much different. Our ability to perceive what’s happening is much different.”
In better conditions, most collisions tend to be single-vehicle, such as sliding off the road. But as visibility decreases, the severity rises to T-bone and head-on collisions. Jacobson said, “Your outcomes are significantly worse than just driving into the ditch. And that’s really important to understand, because we do it all the time.”
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Back of your hand
Jacobson spoke of driving the same roads and becoming used to them, even in whiteout conditions to the point where you could almost do it blindfolded. “But that doesn’t mean every other driver out there can do that,” he said. “And if something’s happening that’s outside the norm, it doesn’t mean you’re going to see it in enough time to react.”
Reaction time matters, and you have to be able to see to react. He said, “Most collisions in whiteout situations, the brakes were applied after the collision happened, because they didn’t even recognize there was a problem until the collision was already occurring.”
Risk tolerance
He said studies found, “When it comes down to risk tolerance, they found the most important criteria for knowing whether your worker is going to crash or not is whether they have the right balance of risk perception, whether they understand the risk, and whether that’s aligned with the actual real world conditions.”
“If you’re a bad driver, and you know that you’re a bad driver, and you adjust your driving because you’re a bad driver, you’re probably not going to get into a collision. And if you’re a really good driver, you might be able to go into some more hazardous situations and be able to safely do that because you’re a good driver. You have confidence. You have the right equipment in your vehicle, your right equipment on your truck, whatever the case is, and you can safely navigate that. That doesn’t mean everybody can do that.”
He noted the season switch means people have to relearn those skills each year.
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A change in temperature, from -30 to -1C, can result in a stopping distance change of 12 metres, for instance.
“Our risk tolerance is something that’s very personal to us. Typically, risk tolerance is built off our own personal experiences, our personal knowledge,” he said.
“As a person, you have to understand that if your risk tolerance is the hesitating one that you might even need to go gain some experience, give yourself more time and experience in a safe environment to gain confidence in yourself. That’s why there’s winter driving courses that are available in Saskatchewan.”
On the flipside, some people can be overconfident. Learning from experience, and near misses, means you adjust.
“If you have less experience, try and gain experience. It’s the only way you’re going to get it,” he said.
Drugs and alcohol
Jacobson said, “Drugs and alcohol impair our ability to make decisions, and they actually change our tolerance to risk.”
Reluctance goes out the window, he noted.
Criminal code convictions can be very problematic.
“Our legal limit in Saskatchewan is .00, if you’re a new driver, or you’re in the GDL (graduated drivers licence) program, which is a really hard target for some people, or .04 if you’re an experienced driver. So at .04 you know you can get a roadside suspension that you impound your vehicle, even if it’s a work vehicle, right? All of a sudden, your vehicle is gone. And then you have to explain why your vehicle is gone,” he said.
And of course, cannabis and illegal drugs are also impairing.
And going on a bender the night before can mean you’re still impaired by noon the following day, with enough alcohol in you as high as .07, as an example. “There’s a lot of people being caught in the seven to eight hours after your last drink category,” he said.
“That’s definitely going to impair your risk tolerance. One, because you’re not feeling good. Two, because you’re just intoxicated.”
Over the counter medication can also lead to impairment, as can prescription medications. And illness can be impairing, too, from an upset stomach to a cold. Not feeling well can result in longer reaction times, and longer stop times.
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Fatigue
Fatigue has been studied heavily, Jacobson said. Being awake 17 hours, even doing normal things, can be equivalent to having an elevated blood alcohol level of 0.05.
“Circadian rhythm is a natural sleep cycle of a mammal,” he said. “None of us are average. But for the average person, your body, generally, your urge for sleep in your body is going to drop past midnight until about 5-6 in the morning, when you get up, that is going to become more and more alert throughout that morning, till you hit your peak alertness around 10 o’clock in the morning. That’s why lots of companies will purposely try and put more high risk or things that you need attention to, sort of between nine and 11 in the morning, because you have your highest attention range between nine and 11 in the morning, if you’re a standard person.”
At 2 p.m. it’s common to have an urge to nap. “Your body wants to sleep. It wants its nap.
“Then that you’ll either work through it, caffeine through it, five hour energy drink and try and get through it. None of those work, by the way, or get through it somehow. Or maybe you’ll actually have a nap, and you’ll get through to the other side, and that urge to sleep then drops off until we hit our second peak of awareness, which is going to be somewhere around 730ish in the evening, and then it starts to really quickly climb again until we want to go to bed at night.”
Shift work changes that pattern.
“What’s important to realize is those symptoms and where your need to nap really kicks in, because there’s no amount of professionalism or hard work or go get her done. Attitude that’s going to prevent your body from wanting to sleep. You bite your tongue as much as you want, slap yourself in the face, you know, open the window down, throw some water in your face, whatever the case is.”
“The only way you can combat that is a nap. The good news is that nap doesn’t really need to be that long. Fifteen to 20 minutes is what they recommend.”
“Have a 15 minute nap, even if you’re not really sleeping and you’re just. Closing your eyes and letting your brain rest, that can give you time. An actual nap will give you two, three hours of awareness, regardless of whether it was because your sleep debt was there, or because of your circadian rhythm, right? Fifteen, 20 minute nap is priceless for that. Warning – caffeine really doesn’t work for that, sugar really doesn’t work for that. Might think it does, but it really doesn’t.”
He spoke of a relatively new concept called “cumulative sleep debt.”
“You miss one or two hours of sleep a night for multiple consecutive nights. So if you’re used to sleeping eight hours a day and you only get six, or you get four, or you get three, those nights add up, even though you’re resting every night.”
“If you shorten your average sleep for three or four consecutive days by more than two hours, you’re going to run these same symptoms, right? And you’re going to notice that you can hold attention less and less as those days pile up and go on.”
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Distracted driving
He said it’s not driving with one hand that’s the problem, with reference to having a cellphone. “It’s the distraction of either using the phone or the conversation.”
Speaking on the phone, the conservation itself, is the distraction, he said.
Some people are eating. Others are doing their makeup in their mirror. “Those are the bad decisions that get us into collisions,” he said.
“And yes, if your spouse just won’t shut up in the seat, you’re going to have to try and tell them to park it for a little bit, but I suggest coming up with a much more diplomatic way of phrasing that, so you don’t end up in divorce, which is also very distracting, right? Because conversations in the vehicle, especially heated ones, can have massive impacts on us,” he said.
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Emotional impairment
“Stress is really that first emotional state that changes our risk tolerance,” he said.
“Stress when driving, though, happens to be caused a lot by time. Stress is a gap. Stress is a gap between the way things are and the way things should be in your mind, right? So you want them to be this way, but they’re really that way. There’s a gap, right?”
Giving an example of sleeping in, he noted people will often drive much more aggressively in a vain attempt to shave time off, even though it would be nigh onto impossible to now make it on time, anyhow.
But if you admit to yourself that gap exists, you can relieve your stress.
Asking the audience for examples of things that annoy them when driving, he heard of drivers going too slow, too fast, aggressive driving, stopping in merge lanes, and more.
“You react different when you become annoyed or frustrated,” he said. Your risk tolerance goes up as your stress goes up.
“If you’re somebody that’s prone to road rage or anger management issues, there are help for that. But the biggest thing you can usually do is get yourself off the road when you recognize it, just for a few minutes, pull into a parking lot somewhere, go for a rant. Whatever the case is, just do it off the road.”
Instead of getting mad, he suggested make up a funny story in your head about the subject of your anger. Humor dissipates the anger. “All of a sudden, you’re not angry anymore.”
“Ultimately, who is responsible for our own safety? The person we’re looking at in the mirror every day,” Jacobson concluded. “The reality is, you know, most of the right decisions, you just need to give yourself the ability to make those right decisions and get yourself home safe to whoever is waiting for you, your parents, your kids, your fish, whoever it happens to be.”
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Watch for the upcoming Pipeline Online Grimes Sales & Service Podcast, coming this Monday. and twice a month after that!