The company fleet driving hazard is in the media again today, with WorkSafe CEO Nicole Rosie highlighting driver risk in the Herald Business Section, p7. Ms Rosie states that New Zealand’s Health & Safety performance is one of the worst in the OECD and that many of the recent deaths have been caused by the same types of issues that have been killing Kiwi workers for years, specifically company fleet vehicle accidents. NZ statistics indicate that 30% of work-place injuries and about 13% of fatalities are company fleet related. See the full story at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11890329.
Crash Management agrees that company fleet operators tend to under-estimate the risk of fleet crashes, and both the social and financial cost. It’s estimated that 1 in 4 company fleet vehicles will be involved in a crash in NZ every year. There are a range of cost effective products & services to address the problem and many cases studies illustrating that reducing company fleet vehicle accident rates by up to 50% is very achievable.
The company fleet vehicle accident rate appears to be even worse in Europe though, with a recent study by the European Transport Safety Council shows that 40% of driving fatalities are work-related. Analysing EU road safety data for 2016 – a year in which road traffic caused 25,671 fatalities throughout the EU – the ETSC points out that the drop in road deaths has stagnated, and urges the EU, national governments and the private sector specifically to reduce the risk of company fleet vehicle work-related road accidents.
The report points to improved data collection as an important first step to take. Few police forces across the EU currently register the purpose of the journey for vehicles involved in accidents, nor is there a standard definition for company fleet vehicle work-related road deaths throughout the EU – a cause of underestimation of the problem. Concurrent with the publication of the report, the ETSC named Switzerland as the winner of its 2017 ETSC Road Safety Performance Index Award for its progress on reducing the number of deaths and injuries on its roads.
In Switzerland the number of road deaths declined by 15% in 2016 compared to the previous year, by 34% since 2010, and by 60% since 2001. The average number of road deaths in Switzerland now stands at 26 per million inhabitants – the lowest in Europe, together with Norway. Said Antonio Avenoso, executive director of the ETSC: “We hope Switzerland’s win sends a positive message to other traditional road safety leaders who have dropped the ball in recent years such as the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK”. http://www.fleeteurope.com/en/news/40-eu-road-deaths-are-work-related.
See https://crashmanagement.co.nz/corporate-government-fleets/ to learn how Crash Management can help.
Francis
I saw this classic by Auckland Transport this morning and thought of you guys – looks like another BIG job for Crash Management! In the Herald this morning, good pix too – the bus sign reads “Not in Service” – understatement!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11891816
A bus has been “impaled” on a barrier at the Akoranga bus station in Takapuna, smashing through the front windscreen and injuring the driver.
Police were called to the Akoranga bus station on Auckland’s North Shore at 4.57pm, a spokeswoman said.
She said the empty bus had hit a barrier.
The driver of the bus was the only person on board at the time, she said.
A witness reported the bus was “impaled” on a median barrier and the driver was receiving first aid.
Another witness, who was first on the scene, said she saw the bus driving “relatively fast” before the crash.
“It came along from Smales Farm, along the road from the side of the motorway,” she said.
The bus was not stopping for passengers so was driving at a decent speed when it hit the fence.
“It just went straight into the barrier,” said the woman, who had just disembarked from her bus when the accident happened.
The fence “sort of went inside the bus and crumpled up”.
The male driver had slight injuries and was taken to hospital by ambulance, she said. One police car also attended.
A police report initially said the bus had also hit a pedestrian, but the woman witness said there had been no pedestrian involved.
Auckland Transport said buses were running at reduced frequency due to the crash and emergency services were at the scene.
Don
It’s encouraging to see WorkSafe FINALLY pick up on the obvious workplace hazard that is driving, hopefully one day they’ll start investigating car accidents as vigorously as they do other incident types. I think it will take litigation and serious penalties applied to companies that don’t take this issue seriously before any real change will happen. Car crash rates have fallen for decades but are now on the rise again, a mindset change to driving and general vehicle use is desperatly needed. I note the issue is covered again by the AFMA last week at http://afmanews.com.au/road-safety-teaching-needs-to-be-personal-and-not-just-about-numbers-and-policies/. It’s quite a good read and a good place to start THINKING.