Drive Safely Work Week Reminds You To Get Home Safely

    PRINCETON, NJ, September 18, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Getting home safely is the most important thing you will do today. That's the message the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) wants you to take from this year's Drive Safely Work Week (DSWW) campaign, which runs October 5-9. NAFA Fleet Management Association has once again partnered with NETS to promote the important issue of safe driving. This year's theme is "Drive Focused, Drive Smart, Get Home Safely."

People sometimes forget that they have someone counting on them to get home safely each day. Whether it's their children or grandchildren, a spouse, parents, dog or cat, neighbors, or good friends, the campaign's simple reminder can help drivers focus more on the road. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, drivers make an average of 20 major decisions during every mile of driving. Answering a phone call, checking how you look in the mirror, or picking up something that dropped on the floor - are these things really worth the risk while driving? A recent federal government study concluded that distracted drivers are the leading cause of crashes in the United States, accounting for 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near crashes. Yet motor vehicle crashes that are the result of inattentive behavior are predictable, preventable, and within a driver's control. They are not accidents.

The Drive Safely Work Week package includes plenty of tips to help drivers look at the big picture, such as:

* Instead of answering that phone call while driving, either pull off to the side of the road to take the call or let it go to voice mail.
* The ability to multi-task is a myth. We're not driving and eating or driving and talking on the phone; we're driving or eating or talking on the phone.
* Driving already involves coordinating the actions of your hands, feet, eyes, ears, and body movements. At the same time, you must decide how to react to what you see, hear, and feel in relation to other cars and drivers, traffic signs and signals, conditions of the highway, and the performance of your car. Does it really make sense to add additional tasks to this list?

Whether employees are driving as a function of their job or just commuting to and from work, the time they spend behind the wheel can be the most dangerous part of the day. This year's DSWW campaign educates employees on the dangers of distracted driving and also focuses on eco-friendly driving - driving smart - to conserve fuel and reduce the impact driving habits can have on the environment.

Although the national observance of the campaign takes place each year during the first week of October, the materials are not dated and can be used throughout the year for continued promotion of safe driving practices. The DSWW campaign has been sponsored by NETS since 1996.

Pricing for the Drive Safely Work Week package is $49.99 for businesses less than 1,000 employees; $99.95 for businesses between 1,000 and 4,999 employees; and $199.95 for businesses over 5,000 employees. NAFA Members receive a 20% discount on the published rates when using the code "NETS" at checkout. To order Drive Safely Work Week for your employees, visit http://trafficsafety.org.

NAFA Fleet Management Association is a not-for-profit, individual membership professional society serving the needs of members who manage fleets of sedans, public safety vehicles, trucks, and buses of all types and sizes, and a wide range of military and off-road equipment for organizations across the globe. NAFA is the association for the diverse vehicle fleet management profession regardless of organizational type, geographic location or fleet composition. NAFA's Full and Associate Members are responsible for the specification, acquisition, maintenance and repair, fueling, risk management, and remarketing of more than 3.5 million vehicles including in excess of 1.1 million trucks of which 350 thousand are medium- and heavy-duty trucks. For more information visit http://www.nafa.org

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