Improving Safety for Drivers and Fleets: Historical and Innovative Approaches

A two-day conference that addressed “Improving Safety for Drivers and Fleets” was held at Carnegie Mellon University and sponsored by the 21st Century Driver and Truck Alliance and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The conference brought together stakeholders within the trucking industry and safety experts from other industries to explore approaches to improve driver and fleet safety. The goal of the conference was to facilitate discussions among industry stakeholders as a first step in identifying and implementing effective safety processes that may advance the FMCSA\u27s ambitious goal of 50% reduction in truck-related fatalities by 2010. On Day One there were three sessions related to trucking and industrial safety. The first session offered two views of historical safety initiatives as a foundation for understanding current industry safety practices. The second session focused on current efforts by government, fleets and truck manufacturers. The third session provided an opportunity for presenters to describe successful safety programs not currently being widely applied to the trucking industry. On Day Two a morning-long panel discussion considered the approaches presented the previous day. A subsequent brainstorming session involving all attendees generated other independent or related approaches. The goals of the discussions on Day Two were 1) to identify practical safety steps that can be applied by fleets and drivers now and in the near future and 2) to identify potential partnerships for implementing and testing new safety initiatives. Ultimately, the panelists and participants developed 26 action items that will be ranked and used as a springboard for future truck safety efforts

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of coenzyme Q10 in Huntington disease

Objective: To test the hypothesis that chronic treatment of early-stage Huntington disease (HD) with high-dose coenzyme Q10 (CoQ) will slow the progressive functional decline of HD. Methods: We performed a multicenter randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients with early-stage HD (n = 609) were enrolled at 48 sites in the United States, Canada, and Australia from 2008 to 2012. Patients were randomized to receive either CoQ 2,400 mg/d or matching placebo, then followed for 60 months. The primary outcome variable was the change from baseline to month 60 in Total Functional Capacity score (for patients who survived) combined with time to death (for patients who died) analyzed using a joint-rank analysis approach. Results: An interim analysis for futility revealed a conditional power of <5% for the primary analysis, prompting premature conclusion in July 2014. No statistically significant differences were seen between treatment groups for the primary or secondary outcome measures. CoQ was generally safe and well-tolerated throughout the study. Conclusions: These data do not justify use of CoQ as a treatment to slow functional decline in HD