Refresher Courses May Help Protect Your Business

The Austin Police Department just released a list of the top ten bars in Austin where patrons leave only to get DWI charges filed against them. They are as follows:

1. Oilcan Harry’s
2. Sherlock’s Pub
3. Rain
4. The Belmont
5. Union Park
6. The Yellow Rose
7. Antone’s
8. Fado
9. Cedar Street
10. The Whiskey Bar

The report, which is a compilation of data from 2007, should be of particular importance to alcohol establishments regardless of location. Police departments nationwide are beginning to track and publish these statistics, putting a potential blemish on the reputations of many establishments. In addition, these types of statistics are often used as ammunition by lawyers filing suit against establishments on behalf of accident victims and even those who receive DWI citations. Not to mention that it’s hard enough for a bar owner to get a liquor license renewal without any added complications. “These are all reasons why an alcohol server course could be given to employees as not only an initial certification, but as a refresher,” says Joy Sisson, Business Unit Manager for learn2serve.com. “It’s the ammunition for establishments to use in combating the inherent adversities that encompass the bar business, and it may even offer some insurance relief.”

Source: http://www.kvue.com/video/local-index.html?nvid=208788

Danger on the Road

High blood pressure. Depression. Good looks. Bad looks. Baldness. Smelliness. All of these traits have historically been recognized as being hereditary. But what about bad driving habits?

Researchers at the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin have discovered that parents’ bad driving habits influence those of their children, even though the children know it’s not smart and not safe.

So is it something that happens at the genetic level? Maybe not. But is it noteworthy? Absolutely.

Froedtert & the Medical College gathered additional research on this phenomenon by conducting an online survey to better understand teens’ and parents’ perceptions of their driving and of each other’s driving.

What they learned confirmed their thinking. The survey found that parents were, indeed, the biggest influence on teen drivers. Nearly 70 percent of the teens said their mother or father influenced them in how to drive. However, adult drivers did not exhibit the best role model behavior. The survey found most parents exhibit the same distracted behaviors as teens such as talking on the phone, listening to music, eating, speeding and following other vehicles too closely.

In fact, when asked to list the top five driving distractions, both teens and parents reported the same distractions, all of which they said they had done within the last 30 days:

Changing the radio station; tape or CD (79 percent)

Exceeding the speed limit (61 percent)

Driving without both hands on the steering wheel (61 percent)

Talking on the phone (51 percent)

Eating (45 percent)

More concerning, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they, a family member or a close friend had experienced the effects of a car crash, yet more than half (56 percent) didn’t change their driving habits because of the crash.

While both groups admit to being distracted, many are not changing their behaviors even if involved in a crash. If they are changing behavior after the crash, the tendency was to shift the focus to other drivers rather than themselves.

Other findings from the survey include:

Teens are divided on whether they believe they drive differently with their friends than with their parents. Just over 40 percent said they don’t drive differently with their friends and nearly 40 percent said they do.

Parents are also divided on whether they believe teens drive differently with their friends. More than 30 percent said they believe they do drive differently and nearly 30 percent said they don’t (38 percent weren’t sure).

When all respondents were asked if teens are often distracted drivers, 90 percent said they somewhat or strongly agree.

Statistically, 41,000 people die from car accidents in America each year. About two million get injured. And that’s just America. Armed with defensive driving, statistics, risk management and common sense, you can avoid joining the ranks of the 41,000 or the two million. This is where learn2serve comes in.

“We make it easy to get insurance discounts, ticket dismissal, and much needed defensive driver training online, anytime, anywhere,” says Joy Sisson, Business Unit Manager for learn2serve.com.


Sources:
http://www.froedtert.com/HealthResources/JustDrive/DrivingResearchandStatistics/

http://autos.savvy-cafe.com/defensive-driving-statistics-%E2%80%93-risk-management-for-your-life-2007-09-07/

2008!

2007 was a great year for learn2serve.com, and we are looking forward to another great year of serving our clients with the most comprehensive and reasonably priced training and certification services available online.

As always, we are constantly expanding our services to better serve all 50 states and are proud to announce that we now offer NEHA certified Pennsylvania Food Safety Training online.

To kick off 2008, we’re going to do something a little more fun this month in the “what’s new” section:

FUN ALCOHOL FACTS…

• Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels.
• Chicha, an alcohol beverage which has been made for thousands of years in Central and South America, begins with people chewing grain and spitting into a vat. An enzyme in saliva changes starch in the grain to sugar, which then ferments.
• William Sokolin paid $519,750.00 for a bottle of 1787 vintage wine which supposedly had been owned by Thomas Jefferson, then later accidentally knocked it over, breaking it and spilling the precious contents on the floor.
• Of Texas' 254 counties, 79 are still completely dry seven decades after the Repeal of Prohibition.
• McDonald's restaurants in some European countries serve alcohol because otherwise, parents would be less willing to take their children to them.
• Many high school cafeterias in Europe serve alcohol to their students who choose to drink.
• Early recipes for beer included such ingredients as poppy seeds, mushrooms, aromatics, honey, sugar, bay leaves, butter and bread crumbs.
• Of all the countries with armies stationed in Bosnia, only the U. S. forbade its soldiers from consuming alcohol.
• Federal agencies and departments of the U. S. Government actually discourage public knowledge of the health benefits associated with moderate drinking. For example, the National Institutes of Health funded a study that found moderate drinkers to be less likely to suffer heart disease, but refused to allow the Harvard researcher to publish the results because it considered them "socially undesirable."
• While in some countries the penalty for driving while intoxicated can be death (yes, death), in Uruguay intoxication is a legal excuse for having an accident while driving. "Please believe me officer, I really was drunk."
• The United States has the highest minimum drinking age in the entire world.
• The Uape Indians of the upper Amazon in Brazil mix the ashes of their cremated dead with casiri, the local alcohol beverage. All members of the deceased's family, young and old, then drink the beverage with great reverence and fond memories.
• The Aztecs of Mexico used a "rabbit scale" to describe degrees of intoxication. It ranged from very mild intoxication (a few rabbits) to heavy drunkenness (400 rabbits).
• The highest price ever paid for distilled spirits at auction was $79,552 for a 50-year-old bottle of Glenfiddich whisky in 1992.

(source: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/FunFacts/WouldYouBelieve.html)