Don't Be A Victim of Safety Fatigue

There is such a thing as "safety fatigue".

No, it's not about getting tired and thereby losing one's ability to drive safely. It's more like being burned out.

Safety fatigue is in the head. It's a chronic rather than an acute (event-based) malady. It comes about when drivers are too accustomed to the same old messages. "Safety is no accident," right?. It comes about when people can predict what's going to be said, before someone says it. It comes about when printed safety messages and safety posters have been posted on walls and bulletins boards for so long that they are no longer visible…they no longer register in the conscious. In the subconscious they register as "No one gives a damn." The invisible produces no positive result.

There are cures: fresh, new, colorful, different, easy-to-understand, animated, changing yet consistent, unpredictable yet effective. No one should blame their drivers when safety problems rear their ugly head. Instead begin by pointing at management and ask the following:

• Do we have a safety program that's interesting enough to get the average person's attention?
• Do we change our graphics and messages yet retain our core safety messages?
• Can anyone recite our core safe practices if asked?
• Do we use different media to make our points clear?
• Are we on top of changing events (think government) and do we get the word out effectively?
• Are the folks who talk to drivers drop dead boring?

Be honest. If you can't truthfully answer positively to these questions, you're a potential victim of safety fatigue. That will cost you.