STILLPOUND, Md. A failed safety inspection and a traffic accident launched his career as a transportation safety expert.

And now, after more than 30 years of helping make the motorcoach and trucking industries safer, Jack Burkert is calling it quits and retiring.

However, the man who has educated thousands in the art of being safe on the nations highways isnt going away quietly. In fact, hes delivering one final lesson in the form of a new text book, Fleet Safety: Standards and Practices Safe Fleet Operations for the 21st Century.

Burkert said the book will be helpful for those who have been around for years, as well as those new to transportation safety.

"While every safety manager can benefit from the manual, if only to reassure themselves they are on the right track, those who are learning, new to the industry, or transferred into the safety job with little or no background can receive an education in the textbooks pages," he noted.

Written in a nontechnical style, he said the content of the book relies on the experiences and education hes picked up from the many safety professionals he has worked with during his career.

Burkert said part of the impetus for writing the book was a concern that some people involved in commercial transportation safety lack the knowledge to be able to perform well.

"It seems that in many instances those who accept the role of safety or risk manager have a less-than-complete understanding of their responsibilities, or what the proper performance of their duties can mean to a motor fleet," he explained.

"So, while we have a lot of fleets performing well, there are others that are safety underachievers, and it is to those folks that my new textbook is primarily directed."

The 300-page book is sprinkled with case studies garnered from years in the business and his vast experience with such issues as best management practices, driver training, accident prevention, regulatory compliance, insurance claims, loss control and risk management.

Burkerts introduction to transportation safety came in the late 1970s when he gave up a high school teaching job to manage a repair shop for commercial motor vehicles.

An inspector from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration showed up one day and found several violations that resulted in a failed inspection. A short time later, Burkert was in a traffic accident the last one he has ever had.

Those two incidents, Burkert said, stirred his interest in vehicle safety and in 1978 he landed a job with Penn State University as its fleet training specialist.

"I just merged my teaching experience with my trucking experience," he said.

Burkert stayed at the university until 1983 when he became safety manager at the American Bus Association, which recruited him after an official of the trade group attended one of his safety workshops.

Four years later he moved to Lancer Insurance as a senior vice president and stayed there until 2002 when he went out on his own as a private safety management consultant, the job hes stepping away from to retire.

Burkert said transportation safety is far different than it was when he gave his first safety talk at Penn State.

At that time, he said, commercial bus and truck drivers were the largest unsupervised group of workers in the country.

"Companies had no idea what their drivers were doing," he said, adding that they would find out only if one of them had an accident, received a traffic ticket or was the subject of a customer complaint.

Today, Burkert said, the introduction of high-tech equipment, such as onboard recorders, have made it possible for companies to know just about everything a driver is doing while on the road.

Plus, he said, technology also has dramatically helped make safe driving easier for the drivers with the development of a wide range of electronic devices, including forward looking radar and stability-control equipment.

"The tools are all there and its up to the companies to make use of them," he says. "If they dont, then they can be in big trouble."

Whats ahead for Burkert?

"Now that Ive retired, Ive got the time to reflect on my next challenges, and while Ive enjoyed working with and in the bus industry, it is indeed time to move on to other things.

"Over the next year or so, Ill show up from time to time to offer presentations based on the book content. And, Id be happy to consider offers from associations and the like to attend one last time," he said.

The book, which is being distributed by the Maryland Motor Truck Association, is available for purchase at www.mmtanet.com/mmta.asp?c=655.