Drivers At Work

Driving is an occupational safety issue - and not only for transportation companies. Emergency service and utility vehicles, taxis, heavy machinery and company cars are driven on the job. Maintenance workers, postal workers, police and sales representatives are exposed to risks from traffic.

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 2,000 deaths a year result from occupational motor vehicle crashes in that country. This represents over 30 percent of the total annual fatalities from occupational injuries, but does not include employees killed or injured when travelling to and from work.

Australian research suggests that half of all work-related fatalities occur on roads, including travel to and from work. Work-related travel in that country is estimated to make up from one-third to two-thirds of all driving.

In the United Kingdom, evidence presented to a Work-related Road Safety Task Group in 2001 found that between 25 and 33 percent of all serious and fatal collisions involved someone who was at work at the time. This suggests that job-related deaths and injuries are more likely to occur on the road than in a fixed workplace. A special police study undertaken for the task group found that 30 percent of all serious and fatal collisions investigated involved at least one person "at work."

While Canada has little data on work-related driving, there is every reason to believe the situation in this country is similar in scale to the US, Australia and the UK.

Workplace Driver Improvement

Employers should approach work-related driving in a similar way to other occupational health and safety risks. Driver improvement programs for all employees who drive on or off the job need to be part of the plan. Providing the Canada Safety Council's Defensive Driving Course is a good way to start.

The six hour classroom program is designed to help employees avoid collisions both on and off the job. The defensive driver takes every reasonable precaution to prevent traffic mishaps, over and above what is required by law. Participants learn what is involved in driving defensively, why and how various types of motor vehicle collisions occur, and what it takes to prevent them.

A completely revised DDC will be released in the first quarter of 2003. It has been nicknamed the Green DDC because of its new fuel efficiency component. The state-of-the-art course offers eight one-hour modules, with five core topics and a choice of one out of three optional ones. Topics include preventable collisions, driving conditions, driver attitude, impairment, intersections and passing, winter driving, fuel efficiency driver distractions and more. There are also brand new materials, visual aids and films (now in VCR and DVD format).

If your workplace does not already include driver improvement in its safety program, make 2003 the year you start DDC. If you would like more information please send an e-mail and we will let you know when the new DDC is available.

NIOSH Alert: Preventing Worker Injuries and Deaths from Traffic-Related Motor Vehicle Crashes, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 98-142
Roadkill, Paul Somerville. National safety, The Journal of the National Safety Council of Australia, March 2002
Work-related Road Safety Task Group Discussion Document, Health & Safety Commission (2001).

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