New website to drive forward at-work road safety in Scotland

8 September 2009

A ground-breaking resource to help Scottish businesses save lives on the road was unveiled this month in front of chief fire officers from across the UK.

The Scottish Occupational Road Safety Alliance (ScORSA) website - www.scorsa.org.uk - went live at the Chief Fire Officers’ Association’s annual road safety conference, in Glasgow. It was launched during a presentation by Dr Karen McDonnell, head of RoSPA Scotland, one of the alliance partners.

ScORSA is billed as a unique initiative to help smaller firms tackle one of the most dangerous activities undertaken by Scottish workers: driving.

A third of all road accidents in the UK are estimated to involve someone who was driving for work at the time, which means that in Scotland in 2008, around 18 people were killed or seriously injured in such incidents every week.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has made managing occupational road risk (MORR) one of its major campaign issues for more than a decade. The issue is also a crucial part of the ambitious Scotland Road Safety Framework to 2020 launched earlier this year.

ScORSA is the fruit of a multi-partner working group initiated by RoSPA after the safety charity saw that smaller firms were struggling to get to grips with MORR. As well as having an online resource hub where firms can access the latest information and advice, ScORSA offers practical help.

Organisations joining ScORSA - which is free to companies committing to the alliance’s vision statement - will receive up to 10 driver assessments through RoSPA’s Driver Profiler software, an online psychometric risk assessment tool. Membership also allows access to practical policy help from road safety officers and the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, key ScORSA partners.

See the website, www.scorsa.org.uk
email info@scorsa.org.uk
or call RoSPA Scotland on 0131 4499 379
for more information about joining ScORSA.