This Canadian has racked up almost five million accident-free kilometres behind the wheel. But for every great driver, there are awful ones as well - and we've listed them for you here.
Frito-Lay recently recognized its longest-serving safe drivers, and Vital Mercier from the company’s Lauzon, Que. location was found to be among the safest of them all with a clean driving record that encompasses 4.82 million kilometres (three million miles) driving truck.
“Frito-Lay operates one of the safest fleets in North America and our Million Milers provide our safety foundation,” Bill Simkins, director, fleet safety, Frito-Lay North America, told Truck News. “Our drivers complete extensive driver training and skills development, and consider safety to be their number one priority. We thank this year’s Million Milers for their dedication to Frito-Lay and for keeping our roads accident-free every day.”
But of course for every great driver, there are awful ones.
The World Health Organization (WHO) gathers statistics about all things relating to the wellbeing of a nation, including the rate of road accidents resulting in mortalities. Numbers listed are in terms of annual mortalities per 100,000 people, and for a point of reference, there are roughly four fatal road accidents per 100,000 people in the U.K. each year, and 11 in the U.S.
The following are the 10 countries where your life is most likely to be threatened on the roads:
10. Chad 29.7
9. Oman 30.4
8. Guinea-Bissau 31.2
7. Iraq 31.5
6. Nigeria 33.7
5. Iran 34.1
4. Venezuela 37.2
3. Thailand 38.1
2. Dominican Rejpublic 41.7
1. Niue 68.3
Niue? Is that a real country? (continued.)
#pb#
It is an island country in the South Pacific not too far from New Zealand, at only 2,400 km away. Niue sits inside the triangle formed by the Cook Islands, Tonga and Samoa, with a population of around 1,200.
But back to a broker's dream - truck driver Vital Mercier.
Mercier is one of only six drivers across North America who reached the milestone, with a total of 106 drivers rewarded by Frito-Lay for achieving one or more million miles without an accident.
On average, it takes a Frito-Lay driver 12 years to reach the one million mile mark.
Other one million milers from Canada have included Jason Hemsley and David Hill out of the company’s Lethbridge, Alta. site.
Frito-Lay says it has reduced its collisions 44 per cent since 2006, thanks to its safety initiatives and the commitment of its drivers.
