Work-related road safety is an emerging source of concern throughout Europe, which needs renewed commitment from all those involved.
It is estimated that in the EU-15, 39% of fatal work accidents are road traffic accidents, and this number would even be considerably higher should accidents while commuting to and from work be included.
This was highlighted at the second country seminar within1197 European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), Preventing Road Accidents and Injuries for the Safety of Employees (PRAISE) held in Barcelona, Spain.
"Using the roads is a necessary part of everyone's daily business, very often and increasingly for work-related purposes. It is therefore unacceptable that an ordinary activity leads to an excessively high level of injury and death. It is extremely important to raise awareness about the role that governments and employers can take in developing new initiatives to address this situation," said ETSC.
"At an EU level the2465 European Commission should integrate specific measures focusing on reducing death and injury while driving for work in the next Community Health and Safety at Work Strategy due 2013 and the Road Safety Action Programme. The EU should also ensure that employers are implementing the Directive 89/391/EEC to improve health and safety of workers by including risk of using a vehicle for work, both on site and off site, as part of their work risk assessments. All EU governments should follow the lead of countries such as the UK and Sweden and elaborate specific guidelines to help employers implement this Directive.
"Moreover, governments themselves should lead by example and adopt work-related road safety management programmes for government and public authority fleets including vehicle safety into public procurement." As part of the PRAISE project,2674 BT (British Telecom) won an ETSC competition for work-related roads in the EU. Since BT's Health and Safety Group identified driving as its biggest and most expensive risk in 2003 the company has developed a strategic programme leading to a range of ground-breaking initiatives to manage driver safety. Its road safety initiatives include, for example, extensive driver assesment and training; collision investigations; safe vehicle selection and the trialing of technological interventions such as telematics. n
Moreover, governments themselves should lead by example and adopt work-related road safety management programmes for government and public authority fleets including vehicle safety into public procurement
It is estimated that in the EU-15, 39% of fatal work accidents are road traffic accidents, and this number would even be considerably higher should accidents while commuting to and from work be included.
This was highlighted at the second country seminar within
"Using the roads is a necessary part of everyone's daily business, very often and increasingly for work-related purposes. It is therefore unacceptable that an ordinary activity leads to an excessively high level of injury and death. It is extremely important to raise awareness about the role that governments and employers can take in developing new initiatives to address this situation," said ETSC.
"At an EU level the
"Moreover, governments themselves should lead by example and adopt work-related road safety management programmes for government and public authority fleets including vehicle safety into public procurement." As part of the PRAISE project,
Moreover, governments themselves should lead by example and adopt work-related road safety management programmes for government and public authority fleets including vehicle safety into public procurement
