A new report stresses the urgent need to address the number of deaths and injuries caused by vehicles being driven for work purposes.
The report, co-launched by a group of global agencies earlier this month, calls on governments and employers to step up and put road safety first – in order to manage work-related road injury risk.
The report recommends governments strengthen legislation relating to organisations operating vehicles and their drivers – while also improving data collection regarding work-related crashes and their causes.
Fleet operators are encouraged to implement policies and procedures to manage road risk, to be applied to both their own workforce and fleet, and when procuring road transport services.
In his preface to the report, Etienne Krug, director at the World Health Organisation, said: “I hope this report will play a valuable contribution to strengthen action on work-related road safety.
“I urge governments and organisations to read it and implement urgent actions to save lives.”
One of the agencies behind the report is Brake’s Global Fleet Champions – a non-for-profit initiative which provides organisations with resources to help them manage occupational road risk.
The report was co-authored by Mary Williams OBE, chief executive of Brake, who says road safety needs to be at the heart of business decisions.
Mary Williams said: “This vital report is the first international report of its kind uniting voices in proclaiming the urgent need to address deaths and injuries on roads caused by a vehicle being driven for work purposes, which are a significant proportion of casualties on roads.
“Governments and employers need to step up urgently and take action, putting road safety centre stage of business decisions and occupational safety and sustainability reporting.”
A useful report, well written and designed, on an important topic. About 1/3 of road deaths in uk are on work trips. In LMICs it is probably more. H&S legislation and employers provide mechanisms to tackle this beyond those for the private motorist.
David Davies
+1
I applaud the report. This topic has been around for decades and in many cases the prosecution effort rests with the police and is focussed on the driver. It seems too little attention is paid to the journey planning and the overall training regime used by the employer. There may be a case to specifically home in on HGV incidents given the propensity for serious harm when these vehicles are involved in a collision.
For years the police and HSE have created a vacuum where neither body wants to tread due mainly to resource constraints.
Peter Whitfield, Liverpool
+4
The collisions are obviously not ’caused’by vehicles being driven for work purposes. They just happen to be on a work-related journey..they could just as easily been on holiday or on their way to the shops. The majority of collisions are not work-related anyway. If one is collision-prone, it doesn’t really matter what your journey is for.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
--8