At-work drivers most at risk on Britain's roads
At-work drivers are one of three groups of road users - along with young drivers and motorcyclists - who are more at risk on the roads than anyone else, according to the Government's latest road safety strategy review...
While education and publicity will form the focal point for a cultural shift in the way employers engage with driving for work issues, the review says that Health and Safety Executive prosecutions of companies will also 'help to motivate other employers to take action'.
Seven years after the Government published its defining road safety strategy Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone, the latest review says Britain continues to be a world leader in road safety, both in terms of overall casualty levels, and in developing new techniques and technologies to improve safety on the roads.
However, the review says that 'slow progress' is being made in reducing deaths on the roads - 3,201 fatalities in 2005 - with drink-driving, speeding and seatbelt wearing all key action areas.
With about 1,000 road traffic deaths a year in crashes involving at-work drivers and 100,000 injuries, research, says the review, has highlighted that:
- There is a high blameworthiness ratio in crashes involving drivers of company cars, light commercial vehicles and pick-ups
- Crashes involving company car drivers had excess speed as a high causal factor
- Incidents involving van drivers showed observational failures
- Crashes involving light goods vehicle drivers were often due to fatigue and vehicle defects
- High-mileage drivers faced the highest risks as they were susceptible to fatigue and drowsiness, drove under time pressure and when conducting potentially distracting in-car tasks, such as mobile phone conversations, eating and drinking.
Separately, the review has proposed:
- A fundamental overhaul of driver training and testing with a consultation planned for later this year on a new approach to educating young people about road safety
- Increased enforcement of drink-driving and seatbelt wearing with a consultation planned on the introduction of random breath testing
- Encouragement of more 20 mph speed limits
- Information campaigns on the benefits to drivers of accident avoidance technologies
- A consultation process to establish whether the current process of police enforcement for drug impairment could be made more effective
- The launch of a new 'driver tiredness' publicity campaign in 2008.
Meanwhile, the Motorists' Forum in its latest report Better Driving: Respect on the Road, says greater encouragement should be given to employers to have a health and safety policy dealing with the risks of workrelated driving in place.
The report also calls for businesses to have a toplevel commitment to workrelated road safety with adequate systems in place for carrying out risk assessments, delivering training and monitoring performance to ensure that the policy is effective.