Psy 409 12/01/06

Court Monitoring and Workplace Driving Safety

Lester Papalii

 

 

Instructions for this activity are found at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm 
Instructor: Dr. Leon James

 

Peter Rothe, Editor (2002). Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press). Pp.161-192.

 

I. Court Monitoring Initiative

  a. Court monitoring is one way to study how impaired driving charges are dealt with in the courts.

  b.  MADD Canada encourages monitors to have a physical presence in the courtroom.

  c.  There have only been a few studies of the impact of court monitoring on drinking and driving cases.

  d.  Shinar study found court monitoring reduced case dismissal and increased guilty sentences in impaired driving cases.

  e.  The study also found court monitoring had a significant effect on the length of jail term.

  f.  Shinar reported that repeated court monitoring attendance is likely to be more influential than sporadic monitoring.

  g.  Court monitoring puts power in the hands of ordinary citizens.

 

II.  Effective Court Monitoring

  a.  Planned approach

  b.  Trained volunteers in do's and don’ts of the court system.

  c.  Volunteers must be trained in criminal justice systems and the laws used

  d.  Court monitors must record and report information they collect to their organizations

 

III.  Workplace Driving Safety

  a.  The costs associated with traffic trauma are much greater than repairing damage, replacing property, and recovering lost time

  b.  Awareness of the costs associated with traffic accidents by employers is low

 

IV.  Costs of Traffic Safety

  a.  The economic cost of traffic crashes was 150 billion in 1998

  b.  The government has difficulty prioritizing safety laws and adhering to them

  c.  Changing the public behavior is a difficult process

 

VI.  Workplace

  a.  Motor vehicle crashes on and off the job are the primary cause of death in the U.S. and Canada.

  b.  Those who make their living driving like truck drivers, taxi drivers, and sales people are at high risk for accidents on a daily basis

  c.  Motor vehicle trauma is a major cost to organizations and society a like.

  d.  Organizational costs include: lost time, sick leave, temporary worker costs, insurance costs, short and long term benefits, lawsuits, property damage claims, lower efficiency, lower productivity and lower morale.

 

VII.  Employers Solutions

  a.  Driving receives the least corporate money, time and energy.

  b.  Most traffic safety interventions consist of one day classroom based defensive driving or driver improvement courses.

  c.  Employers implement driving safety approaches for strictly economic reasons

  d.  Having a bad day at work or at home can influence your risk of accident.

  e.  Implementing programs that address these issues can help and save employers time and money

  f.  The workplace provides a good source to incorporate traffic safety initiatives.

  g.  Work gives people identity, purpose, meaning, social status and social interaction making it a key arena to introduce traffic safety programs.

 

VIII. Mission Possible @ Work

  a.  Mission possible at work is a low cost traffic safety program designed to heighten traffic safety awareness among employees, increase awareness of driving hazards on and off the job, and promote traffic safety information sharing among employees.

  b. Human beings are more than autonomous self contained individuals; they exist within a context of relationships and communication.

  c. At the heart of MP@W is the notion that group interaction promotes employee involvement and permits information sharing.

  d. MP@W has been built through expertise but is designed to be delivered at the grassroots.

  e. Employees are likely to discuss personal experiences and new learning, because the materials are thought provoking and intended to create an emotional response.

  f. It uses the principles of adult learning

  g. The workplace provides an opportunity for awareness campaigns to reach the bulk of the population at low cost

  h. Since work is a necessary part of life, it makes sense to implement a traffic safety program in the workplace. 

 

Related Links

 

  1. http://www.icbc.com/road_safety/roadsafety_support_mpw.asp  

The title of this webpage is Mission Possible @ Work.  I picked this link because it provides a little bit more information about the MP@W program and it provides a link if your interested in applying this to your place of employment.  One interesting thing about this link is that it states that to incorporate this program the starting price is $700 dollars. 

 

  1. http://www.madd.org/madd_programs/10335

The title of this webpage is MADD’s court monitoring program makes a difference.  This is the official website for the Mothers against Drunk Driving organization.  I picked this link because it provides a little information about its court monitoring initiatives and is very much related to this outline.  One thing that I found interesting is that it mentions only seven states that have court monitoring programs which includes Hawaii.

 

    3.  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3929/is_200211/ai_n9158122

The title of this link is “Safe Driving: A Workplace issue for RN’s too”.  This article is related to these chapters because it talks about the Mission Possible @ Work program being used by registered nurses in Alberta, Canada.  The nurses were at a high risk of getting into an accident because they spend a lot of time driving to various places to care for patients.    

 

My Home Page:  http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/papalii/papalii-home.htm

 

Class Home Page:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm