Occupational Road Risks. Are You At Risk?
Almost a third of all serious road injuries and fatalities involve someone driving for work and cost UK businesses £3 Billion per year. This makes driving at work one of the riskiest work related activities, and a key area that requires attention with regards to the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007.
What Are Your Responsibilities?
Any employer with employees who drive or cycle for work, and particularly those with responsibility for fleet management, are responsible for ensuring work related road safety. The size of the fleet does not matter. From one individual to a large fleet, it is how well you are prepared that counts.
Managers and Directors who are responsible for health and safety, but who fail to provide evidence of adequate policies and procedures, can risk prosecution, and sometimes imprisonment.
If Your Employees Drive for Work, Your Responsibilities Include:
- Ensuring company vehicles are roadworthy and compliant with road traffic laws and regulations
- Protecting the health and safety of all employees at work, including in vehicles and ensuring others are not put at risk by work-related activities
- Taking responsibility for managing health and safety effectively
- Monitoring and reviewing risk assessments and health and safety policies and procedures
- Consulting with employees on health and safety matters
- All staff that need to drive as part of their work are protected by law. This covers staff who drive as a job and who drive occasionally for short distances eg. driving to and from meetings, site visits.
Vehicular Homicide - The Human Cost
- Every day 10 drivers die on Britain's roads
- Road accidents result in 40,000 serious injuries every year
- Human factors contribute to 95% of all road accidents
- A 35 year old driver averaging 25,000 miles per year has on average only received 10 hours driver training but probably nothing in the last 18 years
- A driver averaging 25,000 miles a year has a similar risk of occupational fatality as that of a coal miner or construction worker
- Most drivers have a poor understanding of what caused their accident this is often referred to as the 'All of a sudden…' syndrome
- For males under the age of 25, road crashes are the single biggest cause of fatality and serious injury
- Most high mileage company car drivers consider their vehicle as 'the office' and it is very easy to be distracted in the office
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