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Be prepared for corporate manslaughter law - RoSPA

The implications of impending changes in the law of manslaughter for health and safety management will be examined at a conference at the CBI Conference Centre in London on 6 July.

Organised by Symposium Events and RoSPA, the conference will brief businesses and organisations on the possible impact of the new legislation. The Home Office is expected to introduce a new Bill by the end of the current parliamentary session in July.

Speakers - including Roger Bibbings, RoSPA Occupational Safety Adviser - will show how businesses can ensure that they have effective board-level leadership of health and safety management in place to prevent work-related deaths and subsequent prosecution.

Other speakers at the conference will include: Errol Taylor, RoSPA acting chief executive; Gerard Forlin, a barrister and leading expert on regulatory crime; Suzannah Chirnside, Criminal Law Policy Unit, Home Office; and Jonathan Russell, Enforcement Policy Branch, Health and Safety Executive.

For more information contact RoSPA on 0870 777 2120 or go to: http://www.rospa.com/events/corporate_manslaughter.htm

Pedestrian training survey - help required
Linda Kiernan, from Derbyshire County Council's road safety team, is carrying out research into pedestrian skills training - and is asking for help from road safety teams already running a scheme.

Linda says:  "Setting up pedestrian skills training in Derbyshire will be a big task for me, and I know that there is already a lot of good practice going on in other road safety units up and down the country. I thought it would be a good idea to look at a number of different schemes already in use before deciding on the way forward for us."

Linda has developed an online questionnaire and is appealing for RSOs to complete it. "In my experience, road safety teams are very generous in sharing their knowledge with others, and I am hoping that people will feel able to give me a hand."

Linda is happy to share information received with any other road safety team or interested party once the results have been compiled.

To complete the questionnaire go to: http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk

Citizenship Award for volunteer

A long-serving road safety volunteer has received a Citizenship Award for 45 tireless years promoting road safety.

Ann Rutherford - pictured here with Peter Shepherdson, Calderdale's road safety officer - was presented with the Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council 'Citizenship Award' for her unpaid work with the Brighouse Area Road Safety Committee. She has been chairman of the committee for 30 years.

"Many more people (these days) appear to have an opinion about road safety, which means that it appears as a topic of conversation in many areas of our lives," Ann said. "Things like speed cameras have put road safety at the top of the agenda for many. They had poor publicity in the early days but sparked a wider public debate about speed and speed related issues. Getting road safety in the news is very important for improved road safety education and training and speed cameras got it on the front pages."

Ann has no plans to retire from her voluntary role.

Drinks measure warning from MP

Just one glass and you could be over the drink drive limit - that is the message from an MP and the UK alcohol awareness organization, TTC Group.

"A single glass of wine served in a 250ml measure will put a woman over the drink drive limit - I don't believe that many people realise this," said Telford MP David Wright, who advocates a 'zero' alcohol limit when driving.

Graham Wynn, TTC Group director, said that wine was now regularly sold in 250ml measures in pubs and clubs across the UK.

"It equals three units of alcohol which will put a woman over the drink drive limit. Men can generally drink more because of their build but two glasses will put them well over the limit as well," said Mr Wynn.  "Extra strong beers and stronger wines and spirits sold in larger measures are getting people into serious trouble."

For more information go to: www.ttc-uk.com

Derbyshire cameras cut KSIs by 40%

Figures released by the Derbyshire Safety Camera Partnership show that deaths and serious injuries caused by collisions on camera routes have been cut by 40% - and that collisions resulting in personal injury on the county's roads have fallen by 25%.

The number of children killed or seriously injured in crashes on camera routes has been cut by 25% and the number of pedestrians killed or seriously injured has been reduced by 51%.

For the full story go to: http://www.slowitdown.co.uk

Speed over distance solution for Fenland problem
Cambridgeshire County Council is investigating the feasibility of installing speed-over-distance cameras on a notorious Fenland road (Surveyor, 25 May).

The council administers 74 kilometres of Fenland highway running immediately alongside large watercourses, and is looking at practical measures to reduce the risk of vehicles leaving the road and crashing into water.

A priority is the 7.5km Forty Foot Bank between Chatteris and Ramsey, which last year had four fatalities in two accidents - and speed played a role in most of the accidents on the route. The county's cabinet last week heard the results of an investigation into ways to improve the route.

Mark Kemp, county director of highways and access, said: 'Average speed cameras are one of the better options we are looking at. We will be able to use them because the law is changing on where they can be sited, but it all depends on whether accident rates in the area continue to rise."

TfL looks at car speed limiters
Transport for London (TfL) is considering a system that could automatically reduce the speed of public vehicles such as buses and taxis, in a bid to reduce road deaths.

A spokesman said at first the scheme will alert drivers, via technology such as a satellite navigation system, that they are moving into a new speed zone.

"We are working on the theory that if you have enough vehicles like buses and taxis on the road travelling at the correct speed, then this will force other vehicles to move at the same speed," he said.

TfL hopes to carry out a trial of the scheme, possibly at the beginning of next year, involving 10 vehicles.

For the full story go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk

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