Steve Rounds & Associates Limited

In 2013, 515 people were killed in 'driving for work' related collisions.  That statistic is worrying enough for employers, but when you consider around 80% of those killed were other road users or passengers of an at-work driver or rider, its time your business took immediate action.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a driver/vehicle belonging to your business was involved in a killed or seriously injured road traffic collision?  Have you ever considered the impact of a driving for work killed or seriously injured collision?  Do you realise how far reaching the Corporate Manslaughter & Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is?  Do you know what your legal obligations are to your drivers and to other road users?

A vehicle is just like any other piece of equipment you provide for your workers use and you must by law train them to operate it in a work environment - the existence of a driving licence is not enough! 

Let's face it, you wouldn't put an employee to work driving a forklift truck without having a Health & Safety Policy and risk assessment in place and having trained the employee to a recognised standard.  So why do it with a vehicle?

Post Incident Management therefore is a process of limiting or minimising the adverse impact, potential disruption and reputational harm caused by such an event, followed by a swift return to business as usual.

Like any organisation, the police service is not infallible and mistakes and procedural errors are often made at the very outset of a fatal collision investigation. These procedural errors however, frequently and unfairly benefit the investigation process whilst having an irreparable or even fatal impact on the defence case. For instance, the provisions of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and the Codes of Practice annexed to it set out strict guidelines on arrest criteria and the interviewing of suspects, but these provisions have been woefully observed since the Acts inception in 1984.