Work Related Road Safety

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DfT/HSE update

Publicity

The Department is committed to highlighting the risks faced by those who use the roads while at work. We want to encourage employers to manage occupational road risk and are working with the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association to develop new publicity materials to help promote best practice.

A small group of Road Safety Officers (RSOs) from across the country has been set up and members have agreed to act as champions within their region. We are now developing some key messages for use in new posters, leaflets and an exhibition stand which RSOs and others can use to target employers at the local level. We intend to hold a seminar in the autumn to launch these materials to all RSOs. This will enable them to roll out similar events to businesses/employers in their regions.

We also plan to develop a work related road safety section of the Think! web site. This will enable us to promote the key messages to a wider audience. It will include relevant case studies to demonstrate the financial and other benefits for employers that flow from actively managing at-work driving.

We also want to encourage companies that support the Think! campaign to consider the issue as part of their partnership with DfT. We are looking to create a special information pack to help with this. We plan to create links with other campaigns such as speed, fatigue and mobile phone publicity as these are particularly relevant to those who drive for work.

We will use our PR company to target relevant trade/corporate press with case studies, facts and statistics on work related road safety to generate press coverage and a wider awareness amongst companies/employers.

We also plan to work with a vehicle fleet company to display our key messages on the back of trucks and other vehicles.

Research

We are continuing with our research programme to help develop our understanding of the issue. We will shortly be publishing a new report carried out for us by Bomel Consultants which studied the safety culture in a cross section of different companies. This found a clear link between attitudes and accident risk, demonstrating that a positive attitude can have a direct impact and improve safety. The report makes a number of recommendations for further study, which we are currently considering.

We also plan to start a project in the autumn to evaluate the effectiveness of the "COSTS" (Commercial Operators Safer Transport Scheme) initiative by Sussex Police. Under this, if a road traffic offender is driving or riding a vehicle owned by, or on behalf of, a commercial organisation, a standard letter is issued to the vehicle keeper to notify them of this. The offender is not identified but the company is urged to ensure that its vehicles are used safely and offers advice on the management of occupational road risk..

Developing co-operative arrangements between police/HSE to handle work related road traffic incidents

A key recommendation of the Dykes Task Group was that health and safety and road safety enforcing authorities should develop a coordinated approach to investigate at-work road traffic incidents. Following the publication of the generic guidance document 'Driving at Work' HSE is targeting its main effort in this direction.

A paper has been jointly developed by HSE and Richard Brunstrom, Chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Roads Policing Committee to take forward this recommendation. It proposes the establishment of an ACPO(S)/HSE Project Group to develop more effective enforcement arrangements integrating Road Safety and Health and Safety legislation in police investigation and prevention of work related road traffic incidents.

Developing a holistic approach to law enforcement and joined up working between enforcing authorities makes clear sense in the effective use of public resource. This initiative is also consistent with the principles of modern government and the Prime Minister's vision of providing better public services.

As primary enforcers on the road and the first to the scene of RTIs police officers are pivotal to more effective application of the law be it road safety law or health and safety law as it applies on the road. Police involvement with other offences such as speeding and drink-driving means that forces are also well placed to instigate proactive, preventative action in line with modern policing principles.

The project aim is to develop:

  • guidelines to assist police officers dealing with work related road safety issues.
  • criteria to enable police officers to identify management failings when investigating RTIs.
  • a toolkit of possible follow up action to underpin investigations and strengthen the police preventative role.
  • an HSE/Police MOU to overlay this work with a view to roll out nationally through ACPO/ACPOS.

ACPO will be considering the proposal at its meeting on 7 July 2004. Subject to its endorsement the aim will be to complete project for roll out from April 2005 to coincide with the introduction of the revised Stats 19 accident report form.

This work also recognises that HSE will be reducing its input on WRRS in order to concentrate its resources on its priority work. This is in line with the Health and Safety Commission's workplace health and safety strategy to 2010 and beyond which has the full support of the Government.

However HSE is confident that the investment in this initiative will pay dividends. It will mean:

  • that the police service will be better equipped to identify the underlying causes of road accidents
  • more focused investigation without duplicative effort
  • a more holistic approach to roads policing at a time when roads policing is high on police priorities
  • the effective application of relevant law to all aspects of driving including duties on employers.