New Jersey City University's (NJCU) fleet reduced its preventable collisions by 78% in 2015, which earned the university’s Fleet Collision Review Committee the National Safety Council's award for significant improvement in safety performance, according to Patrick Bartole, CAFM, automotive fleet manager.

“The decrease in preventable collisions is a significant improvement and is based on the performance of our vehicle operators through defensive driver training and safety awareness,” Bartole said. “This is a direct result of the proactive measurements utilized by the NJCU Fleet Collision Review Committee (FCRC). That is why the FCRC reviews collisions for preventability and notifies drivers in writing what could have been done to avoid it using defensive driving principles and remedial driver training.”

The university also recently updated its fleet policies and procedures to enforce safety compliance. These updates relate to: driving policies and procedures manual, motor vehicle record checks (MVR), internal MVR grading system, defensive driver course, driver safety training, psychophysical driver testing and evaluation, fleet collision review committee, driver accountability, driver safety awareness, and senior management support.

The National Safety Council calculates a collision rate using the following formula: collision rate equals the number of preventable collisions multiplied by 1,000,000 and divided by the total number of vehicle-miles traveled by the fleet. NJCU’s calendar-year 2015 collision frequency rate was 15 compared to 69 in 2014.

New Jersey City University has received this award previously in calendar-years 2006 and 2009.