HSE Works with Police on Work-Related Road Accidents

Police officers are to be provided with a series of guidelines on how to investigate companies whose employees have been involved in a road accident while driving for work. It is one of a new series of measures discussed by UK road safety executives with Transport Minister David Jamieson.

The proposal builds on a recommendation made in previous reports that health and safety and road-safety enforcing authorities should develop a co-ordinate approach to investigate at-work road traffic incidents.

More Effective Enforcement

The Association of Chief Police Officers was also represented and it was revealed that the HSE and ACPO chairman Richard Brunstrom had produced a paper to take forward the recommendations for improving fleet safety. The paper proposes the creation of an ACPO/HSE project group to develop "more effective enforcement arrangements integrating road safety and health and safety legislation in police investigation and prevention of work related road traffic incidents".

Minutes from the meeting say:

"Developing a holistic approach to law enforcement and joined-up working between enforcing authorities makes clear sense in the effective use of public resource... As primary enforcers on the road and the first to the scene of road traffic incidents, police officers are pivotal to more effective application of the law be it road safety law or health and safety law as it applies on the road.

"Police involvement with other offences such as speeding and drink-driving means that forces are also well placed to instigate proactive, preventative action in line with modern policing principals."

The project group aims to issue guidelines for police officers dealing with work related road safety issues, issue criteria for police officers to identify management failings and develop a toolkit of possible follow up action to "underpin investigations and strengthen the police preventative role".
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