Stay Alive Just Drive Goes National!

Not only has SAJD been endorsed by safety agencies in the State of Florida but our friend Jay Anderson has been invited to participate on traffic fatality reduction discussions as an expert to the DOT this September.

Go SAJD......great work - keep it up!

Visit http://www.sajd.org/ to learn more about Distracted Driving.

Distracted Driving Summit Invitation

August 26, 2009

Dear Jay Anderson:
On behalf of U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, I am pleased to invite you to participate in an important national summit to consider ways to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities due to distracted driving.

The Distracted Driving Summit will be convened by the Department of Transportation on September 30 – October 1, 2009 at the Renaissance Hotel, 999 9th St NW, Washington DC. The summit will provide an opportunity for expert speakers from around the nation to interactive sessions on key topics including the extent and impact of the distracted driving problem, current research, regulations, technology implications, and best practices in enforcement and public outreach.

Best Regards,

Peter H Appel, Administrator, U.S. Department of Transportation

Update: ICE4SAFETY is Now a Charter Sponsor Member of SAJD and suggests you consider being one too! SAJD# 09-0004

Visit ICE4Safety Website

Prep Tip - Safe Following Distance

Once again traffic safety simplified......when in traffic practice creating safe distance space between yourself and the next vehicle ahead - this also applies when coming to a halt in traffic at a signal.

You can see that in the top picture that your options to get out of harms way in an emergency - such as a road rage incident or if the vehicle becomes (or is) disabled are diminished by your lack of adequate operating space.

This is dangerous.

Instead, practice this rule of thumb: if you can see the rear tires of the vehicle in front of you when stopped in traffic, then you will have sufficient room to maneuver when you have to.

This is also very useful during inclement weather and on slippery pavement when the operator in front may spin out and lose control.

We liked to practice this so it became second nature during emergency vehicle operations when you were called to respond immediately to a variety of emergencies - if you were stuck in place like in the top picture.....drivers had to resort to unnecessary and time consuming tactics to get out of traffic and respond.

This directly relates back to earlier discussions about having good situational awareness.

Bottom Line: Allow proper spacing between vehicles when stopped so you can respond if necessary to protect yourself.

Visit ICE4SAFETY Website

ICE & Public Service Messages

ICE lends it self to public service messages for Vehicle Safety/ Fire Safety /Distracted Driving Safety / Poison Control / Workplace Safety / Campus Safety / Emergency First Aid.......and the list just keeps on growing.

The enhanced poster above gets your attention and makes a point. Simple.

Visit ICE4SAFETY Website

Ambulance on ICE - Amber

Amber Ambulance in Marietta, New York - on the peaceful shores of Otisco Lake continues to celebrate their 60th year as an all-volunteer ambulance corp. The only one in Onondaga County in fact! That is no small accomplishment given all the regulatory issues and training that go into running one of these squads!

These folks found the time to roll out an ICE Program as well as juggling their family time and handling emergencies as their way of giving back to the local community they had served for 60 years.....lot of history there! Amber also would like to say thank you again to the people of the community for their generous support during this years annual fund drive.

ICE representing the delivery of emergency medical services!

Visit ICE4SAFETY Website

Back to School !

It's that time again...summer winding down and some colleges already are in session.

With school comes extracurricular activities like ski club, soccer, xc track and others that require travel.

Parents, are you absolutely confident that your child's safety is well in hand or might there be something else you could do - or that your school could do to ensure the safety of your children?


Each year about 800 school age children are killed in motor vehicle incidents during the regular school hour travel periods.

Approximately 2% of those killed are bus related.
Private passenger vehicle deaths account for 74%
Pedestrian and Bicycle accidents account for 22%

One way might be to make sure they come back to school prepared by using ICE - some common sense thoughts when travelling to school:

Be cognizant of your route to school - delays, construction areas, detours.

Start out early to school...that way you won't be forced to rush and take chances or be subject to be late due to road delays.

Wear high visibilty clothing when walking - when driving don't tailgate the bus - stay back.

Stay off the phone and do not text when driving your kids to school.

Make sure walking students know enough not to use phones or text when in traffic so they can be fully aware of others who are driving and also may not be paying attention.

Bicycle Safety - ICE is Perfect Companion

We visited our local bicycle shop this weekend to update some equipment before a ride and inquired about what the shop had done to promote bike safety among riders young and old.....we were informed about some verbal support for helmet safety laws...not much else actually and there was no high profile safety messages observed on the store website.

Needless to say we were disappointed - especially when a well publicized incident of a bicyclist being killed just a year ago having no identification created such a public outcry.....well at least the volunteer ambulance corp (Amber) that responded to the incident rolled out an ICE Program for the local community this Spring - Good Going Amber Ambulance!

Imagine your bike shop providing ICE Stickers and ICE Cards and valuable info to patrons of your store and at cycling events? It can also be used on your website to attract attention to your shop from around the world......nice!

How about placing your shop name and email or web address on the cards that people will carry 24/7 all year long? You can't get that level of advertising for pennies anywhere else can you? Stop buying all these unrecognized low budget and essentially useless devices that will be ignored....and also do not rely on any one method or system for your safety - be redundant!

What a truly cost effective way to improve safety in your community and promote your sporting business at the same time.

Some merchants have figured it out ....others might takes some more time - It could have a positive impact on safety as well as your bottom line.

ICE Application Information - APP Index

The link to the article on smart-ICETM is here:

http://www.iphoneappindex.com/2009/08/13/smart-ice-the-life-saving-iphone-application-with-an-internationally-recognized-ice-trademarked-image/comment-page-1/#comment-1782

6 Tenants of ICE

Preparedness Humor - Aussey Style

It was April and the Aboriginals in a remote part of Northern Australia
asked their new elder if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was an elder in a modern community he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the tribe should collect firewood to be prepared.

But being a practical leader, after several days he had an idea. He walked out to the telephone booth on the highway, called the Bureau of Meteorology and asked, 'Is the coming winter in this area going to be cold? 'The meteorologist responded, 'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold.' So the elder went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the Bureau of Meteorology again. 'Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?'The meteorologist again replied, 'Yes, it's going to be a very cold winter. 'The elder again went back to his community and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.

Two weeks later the elder called the Bureau again. 'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?' he asked. 'Absolutely,' the man replied. 'It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever.

''How can you be so sure?' the elder asked. The weatherman replied,

'Our satellites have reported that the Aboriginals in the north are collecting firewood like crazy, and that's always a sure sign.'

Practical Shooting for Preparedness

We were all fortunate enough to have watched 2 of the US Army Marksmanship Unit shooters demonstrate their superlative pistol shooting skills at the USPSA 2009 Northeast Invitational Practical Shooting Competition at Pathfinder Fish and Game Club in Fulton, New York.

Pictured here with Mark B is (L - R) Travis Tomasie and Lee Dimaculangan

Both Shooters Were Winners at the Event!
Travis was the first place finisher for the Limited Class Competiton
Lee was first place finisher for the Open Class Competition

See Lee on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VDdllTsxc

See Travis on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StXMHw32kjA

Gentlemen we appreciate your service to our country and darn good shooting!

Watch CH12 Fox News in Oregon Story on Practical Shooting: http://www.kptv.com/video/20128648/index.html

Shooters of all ages (juniors to seniors) and skill levels can participate in IPSC (International Practical Shooting Competition) at ranges across the country. Many travelled across the country to participate at this sporting event. About 300 are competing this year.

ICE4SAFETY also provided ICE KITS to shooters at the event since ICE is practical too!

Learn more about USPSA and Practical Shooting at http://www.uspsa.org/ especially if you have or are considering the acquisition of a firearm for preparedness purposes or self defense.
IPSC also entails rifle and shotgun shooting skill competition as well.

Glock Firearms sponsors shooting events at various ranges across the country for all skill levels. Learn more about Glock Shooting Matches/Training at http://www.gssfonline.com/

Watch Travis Shoot a Stage

Watch Lee Shoot the Same Stage .....

See USA Today Survey on 2nd Ammendment: http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Make the Right Choice - smart-ICE

Found on the Web.....

A simple critique of two of the most used iPhone ICE applications puts smart-ICE up against iEmergency+.

What I see is that there is no comparison in the quality of the product and ease of use by the iPhone user and paramedic........ who probably have never used an iPhone.

The advantage is clearly to smart-ICEtm!

smart-ICEtm

The smart-ICE application has a world wide recognized symbol for ICE, that uses eye catching safety colors as it's icon. You may first see this icon on the patients phone as part of it's wallpaper to alert EMS that the smart-ICE product is inside, or to provide a contact number for who has the code to unlock the patients phone.

It lists on the first page, when opened, a list of tabs to access Personal Information, Current Medical Problems, Medical Devices and Deficits, Medical History, Emergency Contacts, Expressed Wishes and Preferred Hospital.

All of these tabs open to provide information in an organized, detailed, and intuitive fashion for someone wanting critical information in an emergency. For example, Current Medical Problems are selected from a large list of approximately 200 common medical problems and medications are chosen from a long list of the most prescribed medications.

Both of these fields have an option to add something that is not on the list!

Details such as drug dosage, quantity, last filled, end date and a comments field, are all the things that could be needed by a paramedic in an overdose.

Medical Devices and Deficits provides information on medical devices that could make a difference in an emergency situation. Not all could be listed, but the notes section in Current Medical Problems will allow anything to be documented.

The Medical History tab allows you to document all of your past medical problems, surgeries, hospitalizations and immunizations, along with a notes section for items not covered.

Emergency Contacts provide unlimited entries for Emergency Contacts, Health Care Power of Attorney, Attorney (living will/DNR), Family Physician, Specialist and Next of Kin. All of these are selected directly from your contacts list and provide up to three phone numbers each that are dialed when touched by the paramedic.

The next tab contains your expressed wishes and allows you to list the person to contact to enforce that wish. Special wishes not listed can be added also! The last tab is the preferred hospital, which provides the medic crew with some guidance on your wishes should your insurance limit you to a certain network.

All of these items are quickly and easily set up by any iPhone user and more importantly, intuitive enough that a paramedic could actually find out something about you!

Most importantly, and the most often overlooked, lifesaving feature is the Alert EMS button on the main page. When selected, it will call the emergency (911) number that you selected in the set-up phase.

After the call, the phone is placed in an "Alert Mode" and will sound an audible sound every two minutes until reset by the user or EMS personnel. This will insure that if you used your phone to call 911, they will find your phone and all of your medical information.

iEmergency+

The name in of itself does not attract a medic to the application. The cute little ambulance and the word ICE, suggests it could contain some information, but the color does not attract me to the application and it could be lost among the rest of the applications.
It also has a wallpaper feature.....I wonder where they got the idea?

The main page opens to a My Info page and only provides for putting in your name, where's the rest of my info?

Oh, It lists three contacts also!

The next tab, if you notice it at the bottom of the page, is the Contacts page. It contains a confusing format for adding additional contacts, medical contacts, and INSURANCE INFORMATION. (How does INSURANCE INFORMATION fit into contacts? This would frustrate an emergency provider in search of critical medical information!)

Back to the bottom again, the Medical history tab leads you to a page that has Medical Information, with a multiple selection list of date of birth, Blood type, Weight, height, medical history and notes.

All of these require that you key in what you want them to see, there are no lists to select from.

If you figure out how to put the information in, consider how the paramedic will read it and if they can identify you as the user of the phone, or did you borrow someone elses? Probably the most important thing to understand it that it will be veiwed as medical history, not current medical problems!

To it's credit, it does have a HELP page......itt lists a few instructions and then goes into a sales pitch for the other applications made by the developer. (That is just what a paramedic is wanting to view when he is trying to save your life!)

The choice is yours!

ICE4SAFETY comments.......
We felt that this information was very helpful when you make your choice as to what particular type of smartphone App to purchase and how helpful it might be WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST!

The writer was correct - the choice IS yours......

Inspect Hard Hats Daily!

Reprinted from Lab Safety Supply Saf-T News 8-5-09.

We make the same recommendation on a daily basis with our Loss Prevention Consultants working with construction companies - this also is a good time to discuss using a Helmet Safety Kit.

Inspect hard hats daily.

One of the most common yet sometimes overlooked pieces of safety equipment is the hard hat. Many workers put them on to start their workdays and don't give much thought to their condition or how the working conditions may affect their performance. Like any other piece of safety equipment, what a hard hat is subjected to during use and how it is cared for when not in use has an impact on how effective that hard hat will be in the long run.

Hard hats consist of a shell and a suspension that require inspection during assembly and before each use.

A shell inspection should focus on looking for cracks, nicks, dents, gouges and any damage caused by impact, penetration, abrasion or rough treatment. Polycarbonate or polyethylene shells should also be inspected for stiffness, brittleness, fading, dullness of color or a chalky appearance that may be due to extreme environmental conditions or regular ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure. Shells that exhibit any of these signs or are otherwise damaged should not be used.

The hard hat's suspension, designed to absorb the shock of a blow, should be carefully inspected for cracks or tears, frayed or cut straps, loss of pliability or other signs of wear. All points must fit securely into their respective slots. Any damaged suspensions should be removed and replaced. Never use a suspension that is not intended for use with a particular shell or one made by another manufacturer because shells and suspensions are tested together for compliance.

One common misconception is that hard hats have a predetermined OSHA or ANSI service life; this is not the case. The ANSI Z89.1 standard addresses service life under maintenance and care of the hard hat. The standards state that all hard hat components should be inspected daily for signs of dents, cracks, penetration and any damage due to impact, rough treatment or wear. Although it is not considered a "shelf life," many manufacturers, including MSA and Bullard, publish general replacement guidelines.

These guidelines are based on general industry practices and suggest replacing the suspension every 12 months and the hard hat after five years of use. Any hard hat that fails the visual inspection should not be used until the problem is corrected.

View the LSS EZ Facts® document "Hard Hat Requirements" for more information on the hard hat regulations and standards.

Proposed Revisions ANSI Z89.1-2009
ANSI published a revision in January of 2009. The significant changes from the 2003 version are three non-mandatory tests and are easy to understand. Each of these tests if elected to be tested by the manufacturer will display three new markings on the helmet.

The three optional test criteria are:

Reverse Donning: Helmets marked with a "reverse donning arrow" can be worn frontward or backward in accordance with the manufacturer's wearing instructions. They pass all testing requirements, whether worn frontward or backward.

Lower Temperature: Helmets marked with a "LT" indicates that the hard hat meets all testing requirements of the standard when preconditioned at a temperature of -30°C (-22°F).

High Visibility: Helmets marked with a "HV" indicates that the hard hat meets all testing requirements of the standard for high visibility colors. This includes tests for chromaticity and luminescence.

Prep Tip - Mechanical Watches

No Electronics.

Works when Batteries Fail.

Works after an EMP incident.

Can be stored in Evacuation Kits

indefinitely.

Can be used in the dark.

About $35

Good to have in your kit.

ICE4SAFETY Meets EMS-Options LLC 8-09

Meet 2 of the folks bringing you smart-ICETM

Tim Green and Mark Balduzzi (missing is Wil Craport)

We think it is important to make sure you know who we are and that we are committed to making sure these Smartphone Applications are fully supported and work as they were designed to do.

I was impressed with the ease and functionality of the application at work.

We hope you appreciate the time, effort and experience we put into this.

Not Just on Bridges!

We do in fact have a lighter side!

Hey Ohio DOT - You Rock!

ICE Success Story

A note from a fellow Safety Professional about his company using ICE 8-3-09

Mark: Thanks for the email.

ICE has gone over very well here at Virginia Forge Company.

We are a small plant in rural Buchanan, VA and all of our 45+ employees have been quite enthusiastic about all aspects of ICE. I used the Avery templates to print 80 regular ICE cards to begin with.

Within a week, all 80 were gone and I had requests for more. Some were also asking for cards with medical info on them. So I printed 40 of those. Today, I have 4 left.

Stickers, and any other info, would be great.

As for the Smart ICE app, I have it on my iPod and have put up a poster with the info for everyone else. I have also encouraged all to check out all your advertisers.

I think this is a great service and am promoting it whenever I can. Once again, thanks so much for all your efforts.

Bill West
VFC Safety Officer

What Works and What Doesn't!

When you are good - people copy what you do - some do it badly as we have see with ICE applications and other ICE safety related products......some real badly.

ICE4SAFETY went to OHIO to this past week to review the introduction of the new iPhone application and saw first hand how smart-ICETM works (and how some others did not).

This application is awesome - easy to use, intuitive, logical and has plenty of features that make it work in so many useful ways to help save you life if called upon. It was designed by a fella who was in that very situation.....and has a passion for making sure this works for everyone.

We have shared that same passion here at ICE4SAFETY for some time which is why we do what we do - we have worked the street and are now giving back to the communities we once served.

It sometimes is troubling to see people making claims about safety that they cannot back up - like these merchants claiming to provide free ICE Cards and other items.......we've been doing it for years.

Please - don't settle for junk.

Take a few extra moments and evaluate all the aspects of your purchase and how it can be used - and what support you have. We mentioned this in earlier blogs.... we don't have any guys in white lab coats running around claiming to be doctors promoting the ICE products - we don't need to.

We spent considerable time working and updating this and all the other applications for ICE and will continue to do so.

Next week we anticipate the introduction of the family version of this application!

Remember: Never rely on any one device or method to ensure your safety - think redundancy!