The Main Accident Evidence
Millions of vehicles - lorries, vans, taxis, buses, emergency service vehicles, company cars, motorcycles - are used for work purposes, and their drivers are 49% more likely to involved in a road traffic collision. Indeed, very few organisations operate without using motor vehicles. About 30% of all miles driven on Britain’s roads are by at-work vehicles.
In a recent survey, 75% of male employees and 49% of female employees in the manufacturing industry, reported that they were required to use a vehicle (usually their own) in the course of their work (excluding commuting).
And many people work on or by the road - maintenance workers, refuse collectors, postal workers, vehicle breakdown employees, the police and so on.
All these workers are exposed to risks from traffic.
The HSE Guide (
PDF format 233kb) states that about 20 people are killed and 250 seriously injured every week in crashes involving someone who was driving, riding or otherwise using the road for work purposes.
The Dykes Report ( PDF format 1.05mb) concluded that “between 25% and 33% of all serious and fatal road traffic incidents involve someone who was at work at the time.” Based on 2005 road casualty figures, that means that between 800 and 1,056 of the people killed in road collisions, died in an accident involving an at-work driver.
A DfT project "An In-depth Study of Work Related Road Traffic Accidents" ( PDF format 332kb) found that 88% of at-work collisions involved company cars, vans, large goods vehicles, busses, taxis and emergency vehicles. Company car drivers showed excessive speed as a causation factor while van and large good vehicle drivers collisions were linked to poor observational skills.
A TRL study, "The Accident Liability of Company Car Drivers" (TRL 317) concluded that company car drivers have about 50% more accidents than those driving for domestic purposes.
Another TRL study, "Work-Related Road Accidents" (TRL report 582) ( PDF format 493kb) found that car drivers with high proportions of work-related mileage have up to 53% more injury accidents than otherwise similar drivers who do no work-related mileage.
A DfT Study, "An In-depth Study of Work-related of Road Traffic Accidents" ( PDF format 330kb) , found that the drivers of company cars, vans/pickups and lorries involved in work-related road accidents appeared to have a high 'blameworthiness'.
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