Van Pools Blog

Franchise Tax Board (FTB) employees in Sacramento, California received excellent driving tips and safety reminders at a Vanpool Safe Driving class last Wednesday. Andy Bawden, VPSI Professional Safety Trainer (pictured above), shared a 14 minute Safe Driving video, discussed simple safety tips and answered concerns of vanpool drivers.

Here are a couple of important things that all drivers can learn from: 1) Make sure your side mirrors are properly adjusted to reduce your blind spots and 2) Avoid using your cell phone while driving at all costs–it’s as bad as driving while under the influence! For more information on these two tips, click the “Read More” link.

Adjust Side Mirrors to See Blind Spot
Tilt side mirrors out away from your vehicle, to reduce your blind spot. “Most of us like the side mirrors positioned so we can see the edge of our vehicle,” says Andy. “Professional truckers keep their side mirrors positioned 90 degrees from the vehicle and tip their head to glance at traffic and catch site of their own vehicle.” Andy advised that if it’s too uncomfortable to adjust mirrors out all the way, then do it in stages. (A short video on SlideShare recommends mirrors be at 90 degrees to reduce blind spots.)

Using a Cell Phone while Driving = Driving under the Influence of Alcohol
Andy also shared that vehicle accident rates show that using a cell phone while driving is the equivalent to driving while under the influence of alcohol; the rates a virtually the same. This shocking fact caused a shuffle in the audience. VPSI, like California, does not allow drivers to use cell phones while driving. (California law does allow phone usage with a hands-free head set.)

Check “Find a Vanpool Near You” for a list of vanpools that serve FTB or call Susan Roberts, Transportation Coordinator, x4966.

Tags: alcohol, Andy Bawden, blind spots, cell phone, Franchise Tax Board, FTB, influence, mirrors, Professional Safety Trainer, Sacramento, safe, Safe Driving, safety, side mirrors, Susan Roberts

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Commuting, Interviews and Experts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.