Working Together to Achieve Vision Zero on Our Roads PRSC’s Annual Stand Down for Road Safety to Be Held Thursday

MIDLAND, Texas (Nov. 6, 2019) – The Permian Road Safety Coalition will present its annual “Stand Down for Road Safety” event on Thursday, November 7, at the Ward County Event Center in Monahans, TX. The “Stand Down for Road Safety” event is held purposefully on November 7 to commemorate that day as the last time Texas roadways went 24-hours without a roadway fatality in the year 2000. That’s 19 consecutive years of daily fatal outcomes on Texas roadways. The PRSC wants to do its part to #EndTheStreak in Texas and southeast New Mexico by focusing on driver training and road safety awareness in the Permian Basin.

Standing down operations to focus on safety is a standard best practice in the oil and gas industry and it has been a useful tool to help refocus industry workers to work safely. Likewise, the PRSC is hosting this industry stand down to refocus industry and community participants on driving safely in the Permian Basin. PRSC will provide information and resources to participants and encourage them to share these within their organizations to continue the conversation on road safety after the event.

The doors for Thursday’s event will open at 7:30 a.m. and the program begins at 8:30 a.m. “Stand Down for Road Safety” is a free event, is open to the public, and walk-ins are welcome. The program will include hands-on exhibits and demonstrations in an expo format, road safety presentations and a dynamic keynote presenter.

Participants will hear from Tim Gard, the event’s keynote presenter and Hall of Fame speaker, international humorist, and former oil field worker. Gard’s approach to using “Sticky Safety” to help workers stay focused, present and “in the now” is highly regarded and sought after across the country.

“We are pleased to be a part of the Permian Road Safety Coalition where collaboration between oil and gas companies, oil field services and transportation companies, state agencies and non-government organizations are all working together with one goal in mind – to make the roadways of the Permian Basin safer,” said Dave Burger, PRSC board member and treasurer and vice president Texas operations for Noble Energy.

The Permian Road Safety Coalition became a 501(c)4 not-for-profit organization after an almost four-year tenure as an industry committee and Scott W. Scheffler became PRSC’s first full-time Executive Director in April 2019. Since that time, the Permian Basin has realized an 11% reduction year over year in roadway fatalities in the Permian Basin Scheffler said. “While this improvement is encouraging, we as a community have a long way to go to reduce accidents and fatalities on our roadways to zero. I’m confident in the leadership of the oil and gas industry, community and the organizations that make up the Permian Road Safety Coalition that we will collectively roll up our sleeves and step up following this stand down event to provide every resource available to not only raise awareness of road safety risks in the Basin but to drive down injury and fatal accidents to as close to zero as possible.”

In 2018, 3,639 (a decrease of approximately 2.4%) people lost their lives on Texas roads. According to the Texas Department of Transportation and based on reportable crashes in Texas in 2018, one person was killed every 2 hours and 25 minutes, one person was injured every 2 minutes and 7 seconds and one reportable crash occurred every 58 seconds in Texas.

In 2018, in the Permian Basin, there were 291 fatalities on our roadways. 43% of those crashes involved a commercial vehicle, meaning more than half or 57 percent of the fatal accidents occurred in passenger vehicles throughout the greater Permian Basin region.

Stand Down for Road Safety 5 Takeaways

  1. Don’t speed
  2. Wear your seatbelt
  3. No distracted driving (Put the cell phone down, no texting and eat your food later)
  4. No drunk driving or drug use
  5. Have a plan to manage fatigue

About PRSC
The Permian Road Safety Coalition (PRSC) is based in Midland, Texas and leads a collaborative effort with oil and natural gas operators, oil field service and transportation companies, non-governmental and governmental organizations to improve road safety and reduce the number of traffic-related injuries and deaths in the Permian Basin. Learn more at https://www.permianroadsafety.org.

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