I hope you see them coming, because I guarantee they don’t see you. I’m talking about the dude in the fully dressed SUV, phone glued to his ear. The Honda hothead with the bass thumping from behind smoked glass. His ride generally sports a spoiler and chrome pipes the size of your municipal sewer line.

There’s the crotch-rocket pilot with the kamikaze attitude. Or the guy in the aging Taurus with no plate, oblivious to the something dragging from the undercarriage and the rattle-rattle-rattle of a green garbage bag where a window used to be.

They all drive like they’re whisking pregnant moms to hospital. They don’t know about turn signals, they think shoulders are for getting around tie-ups, and as for you and the other normal drivers –you’re all just nuisances, in their way.

When you plan your driver meetings, it’s easy to dismiss the little reminders like the need to do a mirror sweep every five seconds. Too simple, too basic. But most often, it’s the “other guy” who causes the accident. The guy your drivers need to watch out for.

In Ontario, where I live, trucks are involved in less than 3 per cent of the collisions that occur in the province. And in the fatal accidents in which trucks are involved, the government reports that the truck driver was driving properly (in other words, not at fault) upwards of 90 per cent of the time.

So what’s the “other guy” up to? Eating breakfast, applying makeup, checking phone messages, you name it.

As a safety manager, you can’t preach awareness enough to your drivers, who need to know exactly what’s around them so nobody will be able to sneak into a blind spot. Here are some tips to pass along:

n With inattention such a problem, it’s no surprise that 31 per cent of traffic fatalities in Canada happen at intersections. Nearly 42 per cent occur on rural roads. In both cases, there’s little margin for error in these high-risk locales if you’re not concentrating on your driving.

Distractions aren’t the only concern. Ask your drivers about aggressive behaviour on the highway.

n A report from the Northern Virginia Injury Prevention Center says the peak moment for aggressive driving occurs prior to gridlock. When density is high but vehicles are still moving briskly, it’s easy to think that cutting someone off can make the difference between being late or being on-time.

n Violent traffic disputes are rarely the result of a single incident. Things pile up: a sputtering motor, a missed appointment, a vehicle cutting in ahead. Never, ever react and take it upon yourself to teach a hothead a lesson. Unless you want a road-rage confrontation. Rather, why not simply let the police know the nutbar’s plate number? You’re not snitching. You may be saving a life.

n Be aware of the behaviours that have resulted in violence in the past. According to a study of road-rage by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in Bethesda, Md., people have been killed over lane blocking, tailgating, switching lanes without signaling, and obscene gestures.
Meantime, we should pressure politicians to deal with aggressive drivers more, well, aggressively. Authorities should suspend licenses and increase fines. Furthermore, insurance companies should identify problem drivers and charge rates accordingly.
Problem drivers should get remedial training and be closely monitored. Drivers who continue to be high-risk should lose driving privileges.

I recently read an ad for a driver-examiner position, someone who administers driving tests on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Among the criteria: the examiner may have no more than six demerit points on his provincial driver abstract. In Ontario, as a fully licensed driver, six demerit points is the threshold for a warning letter. You’re a speeding ticket away from having an interview and possibly having to re-take the driving
test yourself.

Talk about insane. Anyone responsible for screening new drivers should be a true professional and have zero demerit points. How can a six-point driver have “very good hazard perception or awareness skills,” as the job requires?

As a safety manager, I believe there are too many vehicle collisions, not accidents. A dictionary definition of “accident” is “an event occurring by chance or unintentionally.” But 95 per cent of all vehicle accidents don’t happen by chance. They’re the result of bad driving.