Occupational road risk appeal to employers, as part of RoSPA’s Family Safety Week

As part of its first-ever Family Safety Week, RoSPA is calling on employers to consider how they could make a positive difference to the safety of their employees who drive for work.

It is estimated that up to a third of road accidents involve someone who is using the road for work purposes. In 2012, this means that up to 7,679 people across Great Britain could have been killed or seriously injured because of an “at work” road accident.

With Family Safety Week covering all ages and stages of life, RoSPA is encouraging employers to think about the impact that work-related road accidents can have, not just on the drivers and those on the road around them, and on the business, but also on the wider wellbeing of the families involved. It is also calling on drivers themselves, regardless of why they get behind the wheel for their job, to consider the issue.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA’s head of road safety, said: “Managing occupational road risk is all about having a good system in place. But it doesn’t have to be a tedious, tick-box exercise – employers can make a real difference to the safety of their employees who drive for work by addressing this issue through risk assessment, training and other actions like journey planning, schedule setting, vehicle choice and maintenance and learning from accidents, should any occur.”

RoSPA is urging employers and individual drivers to make a pledge to mark Family Safety Week – “This Family Safety Week, I pledge to find out what I can do to keep myself, or my employees, safer while driving for work.”

The safety charity has a wealth of free resources available to help firms manage occupational road risk. Its Driver and Fleet Solutions team also offers management of occupational road risk (MORR) services including policy reviews, risk assessment and driver training.

RoSPA’s Family Safety Week is running from March 24-28. With accidents killing about 14,000 people each year across the UK and being the principal cause of premature, preventable death for most of our lives, RoSPA wanted to help families find out about some of the common causes of accidents and the simple steps that can be taken to prevent them.

The other themes of the week are under-5s’ safety in the home, learning to swim, helping learner drivers and preventing falls.

RoSPA hopes as many people as possible will get involved during Family Safety Week, by taking part in its online National Accident Survey, making a pledge or sharing safety advice with friends, family and colleagues via social media, as well as by downloading a Twibbon to show support on Twitter or Facebook.