Articles

TASA ID:

According to a report by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), "Nuclear Verdicts" (defined as awards exceeding 10 million dollars) have been on a sharp rise over the last ten plus years. Not only have the number of these verdicts increased, the average award per case has also been skyrocketing. 

There are several hypotheses surrounding the reason behind this dramatic increase. Some have posited that the rise in medical costs necessitates these higher dollar awards, while others claim these increases have happened independent of other financial factors. The ATRI ranked this subject as one of its top research priorities back in 2019. They dove into the issue by looking at hundreds of cases from 2006 to 2019 within the newly created trucking litigation database. They looked at the growth of awards on average, and then did a statistical analysis in which they controlled for the other factors known to influence settlement size.

TASA ID: 18518

Looking back at 2020, there were a lot of unknowns that businesses had to deal with. Those issues impacted both the daily and strategic decision-making of corporate leadership teams and boards. Meanwhile, we also saw massive cost cutting, as well as innovation and increases in productivity (from employees working remotely); with all those adjustments driving profit stability and even growth in many industries. As we move further into 2021, the remote workforce will continue to be a hot topic. It will involve intense debate on all sides as contractors, employers and businesses seek to come back together in a way that is acceptable to everyone, as well as provide a balance between productivity and in-person collaboration. Using a0dvisors and their networks can be, and is, a valuable resource to drive both internal and external strategic relationships and sales channels. 

TASA ID: 9075

Do you have a safety personality behind the wheel?  Yes!  Everyone has a safety personality.  That’s because everyone has a personality, and several universal personality dimensions affect safety behavior.  Driver personality is the strongest of various personal factors affecting safety outcomes, in my opinion.  Others include driver age, gender, sensory-motor performance (e.g., reaction time), medical conditions, and mental abilities.  All of these can affect driver crash risk, sometimes strongly.  Yet it is my conclusion that driver personality exerts the greatest enduring affects.

TASA ID: 9075

Here’s a quiz with just one question:  Which of the five factors affects driver fatigue (i.e., drowsiness) and alertness the least?  

A. Individual differences in susceptibility to drowsiness
B. Amount of prior sleep
C. Time-of-day
D. Prior continuous time awake
E. Prior continuous time driving

TASA ID: 20277

Abstract

The expected outcome of Process Safety Management (PSM) is to minimize the likelihood of a major accident occurring and to ensure that the necessary mitigation and emergency preparedness mechanisms are in place in the event that an accident does happen. PSM programs are designed to establish comprehensive, robust and sustainable systems, practices and competencies for managing process safety and to ensure that a focus on process safety (low frequency-high consequence) issues is maintained. This paper describes in detail how a Barrier/BowTie approach to PSM is established within the framework of an established PSM program and provides the missing link in assurance of process safety. The barrier approach not only enhances process safety but ensures that the processes in place are functioning as expected. A case study example is used to illustrate how continuous improvement is achieved and maintained.