Out of some 3,400 fatal road accidents occurring in Great Britain every year, between 800 and 1,000 involve people or vehicles which are on the road for work purposes, that’s to say around 1 in 3 people injured or killed on the roads each year were ‘at work’ at the time.

This makes work related road accidents the biggest single safety issue for most UK businesses. In fact, car and van drivers who cover 25,000 miles a year as part of their job are at greater risk of being killed at work than those working in construction or agriculture. The number of work related fatalities in 2005/06 amounted to 1214.

To reflect this situation, there are fundimental changes being made by the Health and Safety Executive. In simple terms these are

The Old

In the past, if an employee caused death or injury whilst driving on company business they were personally prosecuted.

The New

If an employer hasn’t taken adequate ‘duty of care’, the individual ultimately responsible, usually a Director, or line manager, can also be prosecuted and imprisoned for Corporate Manslaughter.

The good news is that companies can protect themselves for very little outlay by engaging the services of an external company who will ensure the ‘duty of care’ is met.

For more information about how your company can protect itself visit the Fleet Monitor website.

Fleet Monitor