The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its preliminary top 10 violations for 2018 in late October at the 2018 National Safety Council Congress & Expo .

These standards were the most frequently cited during OSHA’s fiscal year that ended September 30. According to OSHA, the list serves to “increase awareness of these standards so employers can take steps to find and fix the hazards to prevent injury or illness.”

The top 10 most frequently cited OSHA violations for 2018

Fall protection has topped the list of most-cited OSHA violations for eight years in a row, and many of the other standards continue to be in the top 10 year after year. The only new item in 2018 is eye and face protection at number 10.

Here’s the full list:

1. Fall protection – general requirements
2. Hazard communication
3. Scaffolding
4. Respiratory protection
5. Lockout/tagout
6. Ladders
7. Powered industrial trucks
8. Fall protection – training requirements
9. Machine guarding
10. Eye and face protection

Safety resources from SFM and OSHA

SFM and OSHA both offer safety resources to educate employers and workers on common sources of violations and injuries.  See below for a sampling of resources for each of the top 10 violations.

Fall protection

• Fall protection 5-Minute Solution
• Fall protection standards blog post

Hazard communication

• Hazard communication blog post
• OSHA hazard communication guide

Scaffolding

• Scaffolding 5-Minute Solution
• OSHA scaffolding eTool

Respiratory protection

• Respirators 5-Minute Solution
• OSHA respiratory protection eTool

Lockout/tagout

• Lockout/tagout 5-Minute Solution
• OSHA Lockout/tagout interactive training program

Ladders

• Ladder safety 5-Minute Solution
• Ladder safety resources blog post

Powered industrial trucks

• Forklift inspection 5-Minute Solution
• Forklift safety 5-Minute Solution
• Forklift safety for pedestrians 5-Minute Solution
• OSHA powered industrial truck eTool

Machine guarding

• Machine guarding 5-Minute Solution
• OSHA machine guarding eTool

Eye and face protection

• Eye protection 5-Minute Solution
• Personal protective equipment CompTalk
• Personal protective equipment checklist poster

This post was originally published on December 6, 2017, and updated on October 31, 2018.

Skip isn’t the only superhero who cares about safety. School bus drivers play the role of safety hero every day as they go about their jobs.

This year’s theme for National School Bus Safety Week, “My Driver – My Safety Hero,” reminds us of bus drivers’ important roles in getting people where they’re going safely.

National School Bus Safety Week , from October 22-26, brings awareness to the dangers for drivers, students and pedestrians. It’s everyone’s responsibility to stay safe around school buses.

School bus driver safety tips and resources

Bus drivers have additional duties beyond transportation. Drivers must be aware of their own risk of injury, while driving safely and keeping an eye on their surroundings.

School Bus Safety Week offers a chance to provide drivers with a few safety basics, including:

• Remember that drivers and pedestrians around you may be distracted
• Use safe practices when performing checks or maintenance
• Maintain three points of contact when entering or leaving the bus
• Make sure everyone is seated before starting to move the bus

SFM’s safety resources help keep bus drivers injury-free, from pre-trip inspection to exiting the vehicle using 3 points of contact. Download SFM’s Supervisor Initiated Training talks tailored to transportation workers to make it easy for your leaders to have a discussion with their teams about school bus safety.

National School Bus Safety Week is sponsored by the National Association for Pupil Transportation , National School Transportation Association and National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services .

By Lee Wendel, CSP, CPSHA, SFM Loss Prevention Technical Leader

For most of us, the most dangerous thing we do every day is drive a vehicle.

In the U.S., more than 34,000 people die in road crashes each year and the number is increasing by about 2,000 per year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Over the last 10 years, technology has advanced leaps and bounds in many helpful ways — allowing us to more easily communicate and share our lives with others. But these advances have also introduced unexpected hazards.

As individuals are becoming more dependent on their phones for information, it’s gotten increasingly difficult for some to resist looking at them, even while behind the wheel. This creates a significant safety hazard. A recent Los Angeles Times article went so far as to compare the impact of texting while driving to that of drunk driving.

The increasing prevalence of distracted driving is putting everyone on the roads at a heightened risk for preventable collisions. Drivers who focus on their phones instead of the road greatly reduce their ability to react to changing conditions and hazards. For this reason, SFM recommends against any cellphone use while driving.

Technology reducing crash risks

While technology introduces risk, it can also be helpful in eliminating it. One example is the collision-avoidance technology many manufacturers are integrating into their vehicles. These systems can detect a potential collision and warn the driver or in some cases actually apply the vehicle brakes. This can reduce the severity of an incident, or even prevent it completely.

While vehicles have never been safer, we still have a problem with increasing numbers of crashes and deaths on the road. Even as the promise of fully autonomous cars looms on the horizon, the driver continues to be a critical component in preventing vehicle accidents.

In-vehicle monitoring service for policyholders

To help our policyholders harness the right technology, SFM partners with a leader in the vehicle monitoring field, StriveSafe by Geoforce. The StriveSafe system gives employers access to an in-vehicle monitoring system that can help them improve their workers’ driving behaviors through positive recognition.

Safe driving telematics benefits

• Encourages safe driving behavior
• Real-time vehicle monitoring
• Top driver recognition
• Easy vehicle installation
• Discounted subscription cost
• Enhanced package options

The system is designed to give consistent feedback to the drivers without introducing distractions. Each driver is notified through a weekly scorecard that shows opportunities to improve his or her “score.” To enable monitoring, each vehicle needs only to be fitted with a low-cost device that’s easy to install in vehicles built in the last 20 years.

Thanks to our partnership, this program is available at a significantly reduced cost to SFM policyholders. Employers interested in fleet management will find that the devices can provide those functions as an added benefit.