Regulations
The principal pieces of legislation governing road safety are the various Road Traffic Acts and regulations supported by the Highway Code. In addition, there are many other related statutes that are intended to safeguard road users. These include regulations covering the construction and use of vehicles and special health and safety legislation covering the conveyance of dangerous goods by road. The main duties imposed by this legal framework fall on the shoulders of vehicle suppliers/manufacturers, road users and vehicle owners.
Where vehicles are being used or driven on the highway by persons working for an employer under a contract of employment, the latter’s duties of care under Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act will also be relevant as will be their common law ‘duty of care’. Essentially what these parts of the Act require is that employers should have policies, procedures and ‘safe systems of work’ in place that reduce work related risks to employees and others ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’.
Where vehicles are being driven on worksites under the employer’s control, the application of the HSW Act is very clear. Worksite transport accidents account for 15-20 per cent of all fatal and major occupational injuries notified to health and safety enforcing authorities (about 70 deaths a year). The HSE are continuing to focus on transport safety at the workplace as a high priority issue and have published useful guidance.
When the HSW Act was introduced in 1974, Government Ministers agreed that, given that its potential scope was so wide, where there were other more specific safety regulations in place, these should be enforced in preference to the new health and safety law. Under this arrangement, the HSW Act, which deals mainly with the responsibilities of employers, would be used to enforce vehicle safety on work sites. But when ‘at work’ vehicles crossed over the pavement onto the public highway, they would be subject to road traffic law enforced by the police.
The problem here has been that road traffic law focuses mainly on driver behaviour on the highway and does not address what it may be ‘reasonably practicable’ for employers to do to reduce risks. In the light of the report of the Work related Road Safety Task Group (WRRSTG), the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) accepted that the requirements of the Act and the related Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR), such as the duty to carry out risk assessments, also apply to those at work on the public highway. They have now produced guidance for employers on MORR (accessible via the HSE work related home safety home page at www.hse.gov.uk) and are liaising with other road safety enforcers and the police.
WRRSTG proposed that, in due course, more serious injuries to employees in at work road accidents should be reportable in due course under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR).
|
RoSPA is a registered charity: Registered Charity No: 207823 Patron: Her Majesty the Queen RoSPA Head Office: Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7ST, UK |
 |