The Safety and Health Hall of Fame International Don Buck

Professional Experience:
In 1937 he became an Indiana state policeman, specializing in traffic safety, and addressing audiences aggregating more than 1000,000 each year. Next he was employed as safety engineer by the Maryland Casualty Company in Chicago, and supervised safety of truck and bus fleets in a five-state area. During World War II, as an officer, he was Safety Director of the Army Transportation Corps, with more than a half million military vehicles. As a Civil Service Employee, he became Deputy Director of Safety for the Department of Army. He was the supervising safety engineer, lecturer and writer. He frequently was guest lecturer on safety subjects at various universities and conferences, throughout United States, Canada and overseas. He is the only government employee ever to receive the Marcus A. Dow Award for excellence in speaking, writing and managing traffic safety. In 1973 he retired from the civil service, but devoted several more years to managing safety programs for a hospital, and then for the RTA here in Chicago. His professional safety work totals 50 years. He now is an active writer, and has three books accepted for publication in the near future.

Career Highlights:
Mr. Buck developed the Army driver testing and training procedures, much of which has since been adopted by other government agencies. He designed the Porto-Clinic, a compact psychophysical test device used worldwide. He has published over 45 feature articles in leading safety journals. He wrote scenarios for two award-winning safety films; he collaborated in writing three books on safety; he wrote scripts for six video-graph presentations used Army-wide. He developed and presented dramatic demonstrations of the effect of different speeds on stopping vehicles, the effects of various amounts of alcohol on driver performance, and the methodology of accident investigation, He served on the National Safety Council committee that developed the Defensive Driving Course. His focus on identifying and changing faulty driver attitudes is legendary. He was a widely sought keynote speaker, a prolific writer, a respected consultant, and innovative instructor and a pioneer in traffic safety. His work has profoundly contributed to accident prevention throughout the international community.