Work Road Accidents to Be H&S Issue
According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, RoSPA, the government needs to take more action with regard to work related road accidents and deaths. They were responding to a House of Commons Transport Committee report that claims that the country needs to do more to deal with deaths on the road in relation to employees.
According to RoSPA they see a need for more intervention from the Health and Safety Executive in combating work-related road deaths. The government report entitled “Ending the Complacency: Road Safety Beyond 2010″ says that there were nearly 1000 road deaths last year that involved people going about their company’s business.
RoSPA goes on to say that very few road-based work related deaths are investigated by the Health and Safety Executive. The premise for this is that it comes under the Department of Transport jurisdiction rather than health and safety.
The RoSPA contend that this is an unwise situation as clearly Health and Safety should lead investigations into all work related deaths regardless of their location. Department of transport investigations will only look into the road related parts of the accident and do not consider the legal requirements under health and safety rules for companies to ensure the safety of their employees.
The new proposals would see a new branch of the Health and Safety Executive investigate road accidents on a similar basis to investigations into aircraft accidents that encompass every aspect including the responsibility of the employer in a road accident situation.
Cover your company by making yourself aware of all the requirements under the law with regard to workplace health and safety. Workplace Law training runs the well respected NEBOSH course that will get you fully up-to-date with the latest legislation.
