An Accident Waiting To Happen?

In the last six months I have been involved in two car accidents. Am I a poor driver or was it just bad luck? Keep reading and I will tell you at the end of this article!

A recent survey found that I am not alone. Surprisingly, the South West is one of the most accident prone areas of Britain. A third of drivers were involved in an accident in the last two years. And a third of all road traffic accidents involve somebody who is at work at the time. But how is this relevant to employment law?

Employers have a general duty for the health, safety and welfare of their employees whilst at work, so far as is reasonably practicable. Employers must also ensure that others are not put at risk by their employees’ activities.

Health and safety laws apply to employees who travel on work-related business, whether they drive a company car or their own car. So what does this mean in practice?

The Health and Safety Executive publishes practical guidance and RoSPA’s website also has road safety advice for employers (www.rospa.com/roadsafety). So there is no excuse for ignorance.

You may think that it is enough simply to check vehicles have a current MOT, an employee has a valid licence and he or she has insured his or her vehicle for business use. This is no longer sufficient and the HSE recommends that employers take a number of additional steps, including:

1. Carry out risk assessments on drivers and consult with employees on the risks.
2. Arrange training for drivers, giving priority to those at highest risk, such as young drivers and those with high annual mileage or poor accident records.
3. Ensure employees know how to carry out routine safety checks.
4. Make employees aware of the dangers of driving when tired and tell them not to drive if their medication could impair their driving.
5. Ensure your schedules are realistic and allow for rest breaks.

The message is clear: your responsibility as an employer may go further than you thought so check out the guidance (see www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf) and implement its recommendations. This may mean updating your car policy in your staff handbook. If in any doubt your lawyer can help.

Managing work-related road safety minimises accidents and will also reduce your costs so it makes good business sense.

And the message for drivers? Take care!

As for me, neither of those accidents was my fault but I am studying the HSE guidance to see if I can learn any lessons for the future.