Health and Safety statistic news
22/10/2008
Work-related car accidents still not included
As reported by Dennis Flower, of Service Management Online, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has criticised the Work and Pensions Select Committee after an announcement has been made that car accidents involving people driving for their work will not be included into work-related accident statistics, reportable under the Reporting of Incidents, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR).
President of IOSH, Ray Hurst, said, "The health and safety statistics published as they are underestimates the true situation. The fatal injury statistics we get are just for workplace accidents – they don't include work-related road deaths, and we believe there are between 800 and 1,000 of them each year. Other countries do include road deaths among their health and safety statistics.
"Work factors can often affect these people, for instance, if they're required to drive for long hours or are put under excessive targets, causing stress. These in turn can have devastating impacts on the person and on other road users. It's in these sorts of situations where accidents need proper investigation by health and safety experts – so that lessons on the causes of the accident can be learnt by employers. Work-related road deaths are a gaping hole in our health and safety recording."
It has been estimated that up to a third of all UK car accidents could involve a vehicle being driven for work, and this could mean that approximately 200 people are killed or seriously injured on each week having been involved in a collision with someone driving as part of their employment.
Rick Wood, head of training in the Driver & Fleet Solutions Department at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), highlighted driving as the most dangerous thing that many UK employees do in the course of their working lives.
RoSPA have been campaigning for over a decade for employers and regulators to address work-related road risk as a mainstream health and safety issue and have highlighted the moral and legal prompts for taking action, as well as a very real business case, as significant savings will emerge from having fewer work-related car accidents.
