Road Safety Observatory - new evidence available

5 August 2013

New evidence recently added to the Road Safety Observatory shows that:

•  An estimated one third of road traffic accidents in Britain involve someone at work, excluding commuting journeys and the human and financial costs to families, businesses and the wider community are enormous.

•  Nearly all of these deaths and injuries are preventable.

•  For the majority of people, the most dangerous thing they do while at work is drive on the public highway.

•  Although vehicles over 7.5 tonnes operate in a strongly regulated environment, there remains a relatively high accident rate in this category.

•  Company drivers who drive more than 80% of their annual mileage on work related journeys are 50% more likely to have an accident than similar drivers who do no work related mileage.

•  About 300 people are killed each year as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel. About 4 in 10 tiredness-related crashes involve someone driving a commercial vehicle.

•  The annual risk of dying in a road accident while driving for business reasons is significantly greater than the risk of dying as a result of all other workplace accidents.

•  Business drivers have collision rates that are 30-40% higher than those of private drivers.

•  Employers have a legal duty to have a Driving for Work policy for their employees.

• There is a strong business case for managing employees who drive for work. Businesses which do so, see a significant reduction in risk and save considerably on cost.

The Road Safety Observatory aims to provide easy access to independent road safety research and information for anyone working in road safety and for members of the public. It provides summaries and reviews of research on a wide range of road safety issues, along with links to original road safety research reports.