More than two million vehicles on the road are uninsured according to Government figures. Uninsured drivers are ten times more likely to have been convicted of drink-driving and six times more likely to drive a non-roadworthy vehicle according to the Association of British Drivers.
Companies that fail to make sure that their employees drive safely face prosecution under a new campaign by police to reduce the 1,000 fatal crashes a year involving work vehicles.
Police will investigate whether the company carried out basic checks, such as ensuring that staff have an MoT certificate for their vehicle, are insured for business use and have a valid driving licence. They will also question managers on whether they made excessive demands of their employees and required them to drive when tired.
From April, companies may also be prosecuted under the new Corporate Manslaughter Act, which makes it easier to bring cases against organisations causing death through negligence.
The Metropolitan Police is one of several forces that have decided to investigate company road-safety policies after research by the Health and Safety Executive which shows that 20 people are killed and 250 seriously injured each week in crashes involving someone who was driving for work.
More than half of companies (53 per cent) fail to check that employees using their own cars for work have insured them for business use, according to a survey by the fleet management company Arval. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) ask employees to produce an MoT certificate and an even smaller number (17 per cent) make inquiries about whether private cars used on company business have been maintained regularly.
Superintendent Mark Bird, of the Met’s traffic unit, said: “More and more we carry out follow-up investigations with companies after collisions, to ensure that work-related road safety is embedded within company policies. In the event of a collision or injury, the police take seriously all the reasons that have led to it happening including the condition of the vehicle and why the driver was on the road, including if they were travelling for business reasons.” He said that employers needed to realise that their responsibility for ensuring safety did not end when employees left company premises.
“Just as employers would make sure that employees are safe in the workplace so they should while they are on the road. Businesses must face up to their duty-of-care responsibilities and realise that they are responsible for employees’ welfare when on the road for business purposes, whether they are driving a company car or not.”
Department for Transport figures show that about 300 people are killed each year as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel. About 40 per cent of crashes related to tiredness involve someone driving for work. Pacts said companies should be obliged to report any road deaths and injuries involving staff travelling on business. There are about 200 fatal injuries to staff in the workplace each year, compared with an estimated 800-1100 on the road.
Stats
(Source: HSE, Pacts)
This weekend the clocks change which reminds us about the road deaths and casualties which could be saved if we adopted a different strategy
As darker evenings return this weekend, RoSPA along with many organisations are urging all road users to play a part in trying to reduce the toll of deaths and injuries made worse by the current way clocks are changed and the need to continue to press politicians to introduce a system which would bring lighter evenings all year round.
Studies have shown that 450 lives and serious injuries could be saved each year if we stayed one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the winter and two hours ahead in the summer. Vulnerable road users such as children and the elderly are much more at risk during dark evenings than in the morning.
The Secretary of State for Transport has announced that following the trial on the M42 of hard shoulder running at peak times which commenced last September it is to be extended to other motorways in the UK.
The initial experiment was scheduled to run for two years but the results have been consistently good that it is considered unnecessary to delay any longer so the announcement has been made.
Considerable investment was made in ensuring that the M42 infrastructure was in place before the experiment started. Let’s hope that a similar investment is made before hard shoulder running begins on other parts of the network.
