16 November 2006
LARSOA calls for more safety measures for drivers at work
Up to a third of all road traffic crashes may involve someone who was at work at the time of their collision and as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims approaches, LARSOA is calling for more safety precautions for employees who drive as part of their job.
The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association wants to see both the government and employers putting in place more safety measures to prevent people who drive as part of their job being killed on the roads.
It is estimated this may account for over 20 deaths and 250 serious injuries on the UK's roads every week.
Many employees have complained that their employers expect them to be available on their mobile phone when they are driving even though using a hand-held mobile phone is against the law and the new Road Safety Act has upped the penalties to a fixed-penalty fine of £60 and three penalty points can be incurred.
David Frost, spokesman for LARSOA, says: "Our members around the country know there is a problem out there and people are often afraid to say anything to their employer. They will often risk answering a phone call because they are concerned about not being able to meet the deadlines and requirements of their jobs if they don't.
"We would remind employers, and that includes managers and supervisors, that they have a legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety of all employees while they are at work and this extends to employees when they are on the road as part of their working day.
"This Sunday (November 19 th ) is the international remembrance day for road traffic victims and we hope employers will take some time to review their policies and ensure they do not put the people who work for them at risk. We understand businesses have deadlines but it's far better to miss a deadline than risk an employee's life."
LARSOA would also like to see coroners obliged to investigate what precautions could have been taken to avoid a death while driving for work and if there were any failing management practices which could have contributed to the accident.
Simon Ettinghausen, Chair of LARSOA, explains: "This would help identify unsafe management practices and policies about driving during the working day and help to improve this whole area which causes so many avoidable tragedies on the roads.
"It is estimated there are between 860 and 1130 deaths on the roads each year which may be work-related and this compares with 226 fatal injuries to workers in the traditional workplace.
We have to find a way to drive these numbers down." Ends.
For media enquiries please call Alison Ferst on 01287 610404 or 07779 435794.
ABOUT LARSOA
- LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.
- LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.
- LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .
- LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.
- The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.
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