Work related road safety
One part of the Government's Road Safety Strategy Tomorrow's Roads: safer for everyone is to see whether more can be done to reduce road traffic incidents that are connected to work. Many vehicles are used for work, ranging from heavy goods vehicles through cars to bicycles. And many people work on or by the road and are exposed to risks from traffic (maintenance workers, postal workers etc).
The Department and the Health and Safety Commission therefore established the independent Work-related Road Safety Task Group to find out more about the issues and to propose ways to move forward. The Group issued a public Discussion Document and held a Conference on 5 April 2001 at the Barbican.
The Task Group's report was published on 22 November 2001. (http://www.hse.gov.uk/roadsafety/report.htm
). Ministers have since agreed a program of work staged over a 3-5 year period, focused on:
- working with industry to develop and promote best practice;
- raising awareness;
- intelligence and data collection;
- clarifying investigation / enforcement arrangements between the Police, HSE and Local Authorities;
- research and guidance.
HSE is now working with DfT to progress the program of work.
As part of that program of work, HSE published on 17 September 2003 free guidance on work-related road safety aimed at any employer, manager or supervisor with staff who drive or ride a motorcycle or bicycle at work.
"Driving at work: Managing work-related road safety" has been produced in partnership with DfT and alerts employers and the self-employed to the fact that their responsibilities under current health and safety law extend to driving at work. It contains generic advice on managing work-related road safety effectively and on integrating it into existing health and safety arrangements. Copies of the guidance can be downloaded free from the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf
