News Archive (All news pre 2008)

Please find below a variety of news stories concerning occupational driving, workplace safety, duty of care and driver safety generally.

Road Safety Bill

The main changes to the law that affect business drivers are:

• a new offence of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, which will carry a custodial sentence of up to five years
• the penalty for careless or inconsiderate driving doubles, from £2500 to £5000
• using a hand held phone whilst driving and, as a result, failing to have proper control of the vehicle, will attract three penalty points and a £60 fixed penalty fine
• there will be graduated fines for speeding offences, dependant upon the actual speed recorded within a specific limit, although the parameters for these have yet to be finalised

Company raided after road collision

Dorset-based transport and logistics firm Taymix felt the uncomfortable long arm of the law recently. Following the arrest of a Polish Taymix driver, after he struck a car on the A303 in Wiltshire and pushed it into the path of oncoming traffic on the other carriageway resulting in the death of the two occupants, police raided the firm's premises and removed a number of items. A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: "We will now be undertaking extensive analysis of the items recovered. It is anticipated that it will be some time before we have a clear picture of the circumstances leading to the collision".

The actual crash and its associated costs will have had a significant impact on the business already. It is likely that computers and key documentation will have been seized in the raid, which will only add to the disruption caused by this incident. If you then add the effect of the negative publicity generated both locally and nationally, this is not good news for this company's reputation.

Two more employers convicted for driving-related health and safety lapses

The Health & Safety Executive has brought a successful prosecution against a director of a Widnes-based firm, whose poor policies and procedures led to the death of an employee after he was run over by a vehicle on a demolition site. Commenting on the resulting suspended custodial sentence, Health & Safety Executive inspector Debbie John said, "A small investment in time and good working practices can often save a business a lot of time and money, incurred as a result of injured workers or enforcement action."

Another company was recently fined £100,000, after one of its workers was crushed to death by the specialised vehicle he was driving when it toppled over. Lack of driver training was cited as a significant factor in this case. HSE inspector Rosemary Leese Weller said, "This employee's death would have been entirely preventable if simple health and safety precautions had been followed, including proper vehicle maintenance and training. This particular accident illustrates the importance of employers providing safe sites, safe vehicles and safe drivers."

Sleeping truck driver kills four

German truck driver Andreas Klassen has been jailed for five years for crashing into the back of a queue of slow moving vehicles on the M6 in Staffordshire as a result of dozing off at the wheel. The resulting four deaths, ensuing mayhem and damage to his company's reputation was caused as a result of not complying with statutory rest periods.

Huge compensation for dangerous driving

A 21 year old refuse worker has been awarded a £3.75 million compensation payment after he was paralysed in a crash resulting from his workmate performing a 'shift load manoeuvre'. The driver had already been convicted of dangerous driving earlier in the year and a supervisor convicted of aiding and abetting. Although the Health and Safety Executive appear not to be following this case up, one can only speculate as to increase in the employer's vehicle fleet insurance premiums as a result of this incident.

Director convicted following employee death

A driver of an articulated dumper truck was killed when it rolled over and crushed him in Lancashire, resulting in two companies and a director involved being fined a total of £250,000. Whilst we recognise that this was not an on-road incident, the DfT is currently consulting on new regulations governing driving for work purposes and high profile incidents such as this do have an influence on policy thinking. The HSE Inspector involved in the case, Ian Connor, commented, "It is vital that everybody who operates a specialised vehicle like this is properly trained and that there is a high standard of supervision to ensure that they always use the vehicle safely."

Lorry drivers jailed after death crashes

Two lorry drivers have been jailed for causing death by dangerous driving in separate road traffic accidents. James Wingfield, 36, was jailed for three years after admitting three counts of causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared at Peterborough Crown Court. His lorry ploughed into a car killing Stacey Gitsham, 26, and her son Joshua, two, and 11-week-old Georgia, in December 2005. The court heard that Wingfield was not speeding at the time of the accident on 8 December, but that the crash was the result of a 'prolonged period of inattention.' Judge Nicholas Coleman said Wingfield would serve half his sentence before being eligible for parole and would be disqualified from driving for at least three years.

In a second incident, lorry driver John Payne, 31, who was using his mobile phone just before he smashed into a stationary car and killed 23-year-old Trinity Taylor, was jailed for four years. Payne, who had admitted causing death by dangerous driving, was also banned from driving for seven years. Sentencing Payne, the Recorder of Winchester Judge Michael Brodrick, said: "Anyone wanting an illustration of using mobile phones in a vehicle only has to look at the facts of this case."

So called professional truck driver Peter Murray killed a family of four, including two children, on the M25 last year as a result of driving under the influence of alcohol. Murray will not only serve six years in jail for four counts of causing death by dangerous driving but also be disqualified from driving for five years thereafter and have to take an extended driving test, effectively ending his career as a driver.

More lorry driver mayhem

A 51 year old Telford man has received a lengthy custodial sentence following his conviction for dangerous driving, his Volvo truck having ploughed into the back of a stationary car whilst making a call on his hand held mobile phone. Two teenage girls lost their life as a result. Although on this occasion no employing entity was brought to book for the carnage and devastation wrought on the two families concerned, it serves to illustrate that robust procedures to govern the sensible use of mobile phones must be in place if companies are going to protect themselves from potentially damaging negative publicity.

Duty of Care penalty

A whopping £30,000 fine has been levied on a vegetable wholesale company after one of its employees was killed in a road crash as a result of falling asleep at the wheel, due to working over long hours.

The successful prosecution was brought by the Health and Safety Executive after it was able to demonstrate that the company was not adequately monitoring its employees working hours and was subsequently failing in its duty of care towards them.

The company also had to pay out £24,000 in costs, making the total bill £54,000.

It is now quite conceivable that the same process could be applied if, say, an employee killed another road user whilst on the mobile phone and was able to demonstrate that there was no company policy in place that specifically disallowed the use of a phone whilst driving.

Fine for health & safety lapse

Staffordshire-based company Sandmaster Ltd. has been fined £20,000 plus £4,500 costs, following a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which caused the death of an employee in the company's yard, after he was struck by a skip lorry. HSE investigating inspector Andrew Bowker said, "It is vital that site and depot managers carry out risk assessment to identify potential dangers to workers and put adequate solutions in place.....it doesn't take a lot of organisation or money to put measures in place which can make a difference to people's working environment and even save lives."

At work crash stats

For the first time, the DfT has analysed the latest road collision statistics and identified the involvement of drivers who were 'at work' at the time.

It transpires that 54,935 at-work vehicles were involved in on-road incidents during 2005. This means that 15% of all vehicles involved in on-road incidents were being driven for work purposes, with a further 9% involved in journeys either to or from work premises.

The DfT also looked more closely at the causes of road incidents. As if we needed affirmation of our much emphasised 'See and be Seen' advice, 32% of all crashes were attributable to drivers 'failing to look properly'. Interestingly, only one in 20 collisions involved a driver exceeding the speed limit at the time.