Driving in Severe Weather - Helping you steer clear of trou

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB1058/10 - Driving in Severe Weather - Helping you steer clear of trouble - Highways Agency Guidance

To: All Branches


Dear Colleagues


Driving in Severe Weather - Helping you steer clear of trouble - Highways Agency Guidance


With treacherous weather conditions expected around the UK over the next few days and a severe winter forecast, The Highways Agency have issued a new guide (copy attached) entitled "Driving in Severe Weather - Helping you steer clear of trouble". It has been written to help drivers stay safe on the roads this winter. It includes advice from the Highways Agency and the Met Office and is supported by the Driving Standards Agency, the THINK! Campaign and the Institute of Advanced Motorists.


RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) has also this week urged bosses to cut road journeys in bad weather the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is urging bosses to ensure employees are not making unnecessary road journeys stating that driving for work was now recognised as the most dangerous thing that most people did as part of their job. About 20 people were killed and 250 seriously injured every week in crashes involving someone driving, riding or otherwise using the road for work purposes. RoSPA have advised employers to ensure they have systems in place to carry out risk assessments to judge if journeys are really necessary, especially during winter months when we see an increase in road accident rates. Obviously vital services have to be maintained, but employers need to ask themselves if it is acceptable for their drivers to be on the road in conditions such as thick fog, snow and ice. Would they be able to live with themselves if people died in a road accident which resulted from a journey they had insisted on and yet which was not absolutely necessary! RoSPA urged employers to think about the issue now in the light of the forecast of prolonged periods of severe weather this winter. RoSPA conclude the Employers have a duty under health and safety law to take sensible steps to ensure the safety of their staff and others when driving for work. If staff had to make journeys in bad weather, employers should ensure that their drivers were properly trained and equipped to cope with the conditions.


Yours Sincerely


Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

diriving in severe weather.pdf

[Broxi51]

Obviously with all the snow and accidents just waiting to happen where does the blame lie?
In our office yesterday we were told to go out and deliver where we could and not to
take any risks.
The police, however, were advising everyone to stay off the roads unless absolutely necessary.
Last year we were told to stick to main roads but this was dangerous. The snow plough
had come along and made the roads passable but there was nowhere to park because the snow was piled
at the side of the road. This led to vans blocking one side of a snow bound road
which I would have thought was extremely dangerous.
Does this corporate liability kick in during the severe weather and if it does
shouldnt Doms be made aware that by sending us out in these conditions
could end up with him in jail, fined or sacked.

[stokes11eg]

This should be sent out to all office Managers.---

[Pat Ostman]

They wouldn't give a s**t

[TrueBlueTerrier]

2 similar topics merged

[Broxi51]

Corporate Liability, Health and Safety, Fleet Driver, Safety, by Ride Drive

For any employee who drives a motor vehicle as part of their job description, that vehicle can be defined as their place of work and therefore subject to Health and Safety legislation.

As an employer of people who may drive a motor vehicle on a road as part of their job function, and in connection with your company business, you have a duty of care over that workforce, and are therefore duty-bound to provide professional driver training to keep them safe from harm on the road. Even if you don’t actually supply the vehicle they use, the implications are the same. People have to be properly trained, and that is a basic Health and Safety requirement.

Before the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, if a corporate organisation was brought to trial for some incident or other, and that organisation was found to be liable, it would be the company that would be punished, as in a company name. However, that has now changed, because under the Act liability is brought to the feet of individuals within corporate organisations. That means heads of department, training managers and other held-to-be responsible employees can be individually held accountable and therefore punished as individuals; and where a death or serious injury occurs, perhaps through neglegence, the penalty can be a term of imprisonment.

Despite the many press releases, and other publicity, very few organisations seem to have adaequate safety policies in place to protect both themselves or their workforce from the penalties under the terms of Heath and Safety legislation. One day someone is going to be made an example of, but does it have to come to that for people to sit up and take notice? It can all go so badly wrong and from an accident that may just be a road collision involving a company vehicle user who has perhaps not received an adequate level of driver training.

It is very easy to think that nothing unpleasant is ever going to happen, but unfortunately it does, and more often than not it happens to those that have not prepared for it. Don’t let it be you who is caught out