ACM Newsletter March 2024

This month, the watchword is safety. Learn 8 tornado safety tips for home and business owners; how to mitigate distracted driving in employees; and what to do in the event of an active lethal threat. See below for more information and links.

8 tornado safety tips for homeowners and business owners

 Spring is just around the corner. That means it’s tornado season, primarily March-June, although tornadoes can occur in almost any month. Tornadoes generally occur between the hours of 3 and 9 p.m. Here are some recent stats:

• Of the 1,200+ tornadoes that touch down in the U.S. annually, truly violent ones account for only 2% of the total.
• However, they cause 70% of all tornado deaths.
• 227 people are killed annually in a tornado.

Check out our blog for 8 tips that can help you keep your home or business safe throughout tornado season. 

Distracted driving and your insurance client's employees

 Distracted driving is a factor in 80% of crashes, claiming 3,522 lives in 2021 (latest figures available from NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

This isn’t great news for employees - or employers' commercial auto insurance rates. Take note, and teach your employees about common distractions such as:

• Talking or texting on a cell phone
• Eating and reading
• Manipulating controls such as the radio, GPS or air temperature
• Navigation and hand-held computers or devices
• Smoking
• Route problems, i.e., looking for route and/or traffic signs
• Unfamiliar situations such as staring at an automobile crash

Active Lethal Threat Preparation

 This is no one’s favorite topic but there is, unfortunately, a perennial need to address it: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) considers active threats by armed assailants a common enough occurrence to advise employers to develop a contingency plan should they experience such an event.

That plan usually hinges on the “Run, Hide, Fight” paradigm. Developing a more sophisticated action plan involves noting and tracking the development of risk factors such as:

• Irrational, aggressive behavior
• Hostile feelings or words
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Sudden distance from friends and colleagues
• Sudden decline in work performance
• Personal hardships (financial difficulties, litigation, failing relationships, etc.)
• Threatening behavior or declarations of intent to hurt others or themselves

Note that none of these employee behaviors is industry- or sector-specific: They are workplace-agnostic risk factors, liable to develop in employees on a construction site, in a corporate office or anywhere else. That’s why everyone—not just management—needs to be aware of risk factors, how to mitigate them, and what to do in the event of an active lethal threat.

Visit our website for more tools, tips and resources