Maintaining Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety at Airports

[Music] warm weather signals the start of a busy time at our nation's airports we see heavier commercial and general aviation traffic plus a slew of construction and maintenance activities with this increased activity we also see a trend of more vehicles and pedestrians that have not been authorized to operate on the airport known as a vehicle pedestrian deviation or VPD data shows that vpds increase when the weather gets warmer we want to stop this trend the FAA examined the causes of this increase and identified common factors increased construction and maintenance activities lapses in escort and access control procedures and diminished situational awareness your active involvement is crucial in our efforts to decrease these vpds there are two concrete steps you can take to help first is training comprehensive initial and refresher training sessions must emphasize escort and access control protocols to ensure only authorized individuals are accessing the airport this training is critical for airport Personnel seasonal staff construction workers and tenants second enhanced situational awareness initiatives are of vital importance initial and refresher training should focus on critical airport changes Construction safety area boundaries potential airport specific hotspots and clear and concise communication with the control tower or other aircraft and surface Vehicles situational awareness can also be enhanced by utilizing Technologies like vehicle movement area transponders and Runway incursion Warning Systems by implementing these steps you can work toward effectively mitigating the risks of vpds instilling a lasting culture of unwavering safety vigilance across all airport operations is crucial for ensuring effective and safe operations [Music]