RoSPA warns of fatigue threat to company drivers

A new report on the dangers of driving while tired is a warning to all fleet managers of the need to tackle fatigue in their policies on managing occupational road risk, according to RoSPA.

The DfT research shows that on selected motorways and trunk roads:

• 17 per cent of road crashes resulting in injury or death were sleep related;
• A quarter of all road crashes that caused death or serious injury were sleep related;
• 67 per cent of sleep-related crashes were caused by car drivers, and 32 per cent were caused by drivers of goods vehicles;
• Road crashes occur mostly on Fridays but sleep-related crashes occur most commonly on Mondays.

"We are not surprised by these figures, but they are still very disturbing," said Charles Davis , RoSPA head of driver and fleet solutions. "They should make fleet managers look very closely at the way they are dealing with the potential for their drivers to be over-tired at the wheel.

"If 67 per cent of sleep-related crashes are caused by car drivers, it is likely that a high proportion of them are on the road for work purposes. We know that between a third and a quarter of all deaths on Britain's roads are in some way work-related.

"The research emphasises the need for employers to plan journeys correctly, set realistic schedules, look at alternative methods of transport, allow overnight stops and consider if some journeys are really necessary," Charles Davis added.

RoSPA has published a Driving for Work Safe Journey Planner, which is available at www.rospa.com/pdfs/road/worksafejourney.pdf.  

For more information visit www.rospa.com/drivertraining.