Addressing a top claim for community-focused organizations, plus sharing 7 quick tips to help them avoid these incidents.
From natural disasters to crisis situations, the personnel and volunteers that dedicate their time and talents to healthcare, religion, schools, emergency services, water, municipalities and other community-focused organizations and groups face unique and dangerous risks during their missions. However, sometimes it's the smaller, more-frequent and less-villainized hazards that lead to incidents with big costs—like drivers backing into parked vehicles, trees, poles or stationary equipment. 
Our claims data shows that drivers striking stationary objects, like buildings, signs or barriers, is a top claim for many community-focused industries.
Given all that's on these organizations' plates, backing into a pole may be one of the last things they're worried about. But vehicles are essential to helping many groups fulfill their missions and goals—and even a "seemingly small" incident can leave an organization down a vehicle, leading to major challenges in their operations. So, considering how often fixed object strikes occur, it's likely worth reminding drivers and operators about best practices to help them avoid them.
7 Tips to help prevent stationary object strikes:
- Focus on backing: Blind spots can make backing vehicles, and especially larger commercial vehicles, potentially hazardous—so it's crucial to train on these operations and avoid backing, when possible.
- Use spotters: Consider using a spotter during any circumstance where a vehicle is forced to maneuver in an area with reduced clearance. Both spotters and drivers should be trained on best practices, like never having a spotter between a moving vehicle and stationary object.
- Protect your fixed objects: Help make fixed objects at your facilities more visible by adding markers, like an orange flag or tall fencing near your AC unit.
- Circle of safety: Before driving, consider conducting a circle of safety that includes a complete walk-around of the vehicle to check for hazards.
- Slow down: According to the NHTSA, speeding affects your ability to drive safely in all situations—and was a contributing factor in 29% of all traffic fatalities in 2022.
- Use tech as a tool, not a crutch: Understand the capabilities and limitations of any vehicle cameras or sensors—and know how to safely maneuver the vehicles without them in the event of a malfunction.
- Develop policies, procedures and guidelines: Have clearly defined expectations for drivers related to backing and fixed object strike prevention, including ongoing training.
At Glatfelter, we’re all about helping our clients proactively prepare and stay protected against risks like this, long before a claim ever occurs. That’s why we have libraries with industry-specialized resources, ongoing communications and accessible associates to help you stay in-the-loop about the everyday risks and unique challenges your clients face. Because we're all about seeing our insureds safely fulfill their missions—and our dedicated broker partners continue to succeed as invaluable parts of their clients' risk management plans.