MORR™ : An International Comparisons Review
United Kingdom
Motor vehicle-related highway crashes are consistently the leading cause of work-related fatalities in the United States, accounting for nearly one-fourth of all fatalities. Although annual numbers of work-related fatalities have generally declined over the past decade, fatalities due to motor vehicle-related highway crashes have increased steadily over this period, finally declining slightly in 2000.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/toplst.html.
The US tends to use the term ‘occupational vehicle-related highway crashes’ followed by fleet safety.
In 1998 NIOSH produced a publication called “NIOSH Alert – Preventing worker injuries and deaths from traffic related motor vehicle crashes”. This document includes statistics on various factors related to fatal injuries e.g. BAC, crash rates by age of worker, industry sectors, collision types, vehicle types (trucks, cars & others), occupation types, road types, and pedestrian accidents. Statistics are derived from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also includes regulations from the federal highway administration and NHTSA (under the US dept of transportation).
The document concludes with some recommendations to companies to develop safety programs. These recommendations are not detailed and the emphasis is on performance, skill-based, vehicle maintenance and looking towards regulations from commercial vehicle safety programs. It lacks recommendations concerning awareness raising and attitudes.
Recommendations to researchers include classifying work-related miles driven, identifying risk sectors and other factors, studying issues on optimal use of training and communication strategies, reviewing existing regulations, detailed data on causes of work-related motor vehicle crashes.
NIOSH is currently updating the NIOSH Alert MORR with extensive changes to provide current statistics and to give more practical guidance to companies to manage this risk. Recommendations are to be directed at employers and the emphasis is on providing “consensus” and best practice guidance rather than advocating the need for more regulations. Private correspondences indicate that the US looks to the UK, Australia and Europe respectively for information as they feel that these countries are leading the way.
NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has also produced a document called ‘What do traffic crashes costs? Total Costs to Employers by state and industry’. Motor vehicle crash injuries on and off the job cost employers almost $55 billion in 1994. in 1994, motor vehicle crashes killed an estimated 2,000 people while they were working and injured 323,000. Savings from traffic safety programs are potentially as high as $50,000 per million vehicle miles of travel.
The Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS www.netsnational.org), is a non-profit organization dedicated to informing employers of the dramatic costs resulting from motor vehicle crashes. NETS assists employers to implement policies, institute on-site employee programs, and conduct community activities that focus on highway safety issues affecting employers’ costs. Each year about 3,500 people are killed on the roads and 40,000 are seriously injured. A significant proportion of these deaths and injuries can be connected with work. Accidents involving heavy goods vehicles, buses, company car and van drivers, despatch riders are all examples.
Research commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and others suggests that between 25% and 33% of fatal and serious road traffic incidents involve someone who was at work at the time. These figures include all categories of road users - drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists as well as pedestrians and those working at the side of the road, suggesting that between 10,175 and 13,512 people were killed or injured in at-work road incidents in 2001. RoSPA states that work related road accidents are the biggest cause of work related accidental death. Between 800 and 1000 people are being killed annually in work related road traffic accidents. Levels of risk of fatality faced by those covering significant distances annually by car or van in the course of their work are the same risk of accidental death as workers in acknowledged high-risk sectors such as construction, agriculture or quarrying. Those covering 25,000 miles per annum for their work by car are close to tolerable levels of risk described in HSE's seminal risk document, ' Reducing risks, protecting people' (R2P2).
In 2001 the Government and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) set up an independent Work Related Road Safety Task Group (WRRSTG) to initiate a national debate around the proposition that employers should be addressing risks faced (and created) by their employees on the road as part of mainstream health and safety management. The underlying idea is that organisations should be taking positive action to promote the safety of their staff while at work on the road, whether as drivers, passengers or pedestrians.
The Group took the view that occupational road risk is a major but still generally neglected issue. In part this is because the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act has not been enforced in this area. On the other hand it is clear that there is a very strong 'business case' for action in this area. Not only can the management of occupational road risk (MORR) improve overall employee safety but it can help reduce the resulting costs of accidents and create efficiency savings, improve an organisation's safety image and make a significant contribution to meeting UK road safety targets.
The WRRSTG report confirmed that the general duties in the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations apply while employees are at work on the highway whether as drivers/riders, passengers or pedestrians.
The Final Report of the WRRSTG 2001 as presented to the Government and the Health & Safety Commission (HSC), is accessible on the web.
In light of the report of the Government's independent Work Related Road Safety Task Group (WRRSTG) the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Department for Transport (DfT) have recently published guidance for employers entitled, ' Driving at Work': http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg382.pdf
Other guidance for employers, managers and drivers at work include RoSPA's recently revised MORR guide first published in 1998. RoSPA continues to organise special MORR events and staff continue to make presentations to outside bodies in a major publicity drive to promote this.
Together with other key players', RoSPA has established the Occupational Road Safety Alliance (ORSA) which now includes some 66 member organisations. The priority task recommended by WRRSTG was the need to raise awareness, suggesting that, while the HSC/E may need time to take action on research and enforcement liaison, it needs to work closely with others (such as members of ORSA) to get the message across to employers and 'key intermediaries'. ORSA made input to drafts of the HSE/DfT guidance which it is now working to publicise. RoSPA is continuing to work to ensure that occupational road risk is addressed by employers and regulators as a mainstream health and safety at work issue and provides the secretariat for ORSA, which includes the maintenance of the web site (www.orsa.org.uk).
More recently a MORR Research Group has been established under the ORSA umbrella. A scientific meeting has been held bringing together researchers and experts in MORR with the purpose of finding out what research is currently out there and where more information is still needed. Current work related to MORR are being reviewed to identify and establish consensus about research topics, needs and priorities. Potential collaboration for research work could also be established. This research group has started to meet up, take work forward and report back.
The UK has recently (December 2003) passed new legislation on the use of mobile phones when driving. This is having an impact for drivers at work and their employers. Responsibility for the introduction of new legislation on the use of mobile phones, while driving, rests with the Department for Transport. http://www.dft.gov.uk/
NETS reports five major traffic safety issues which contribute to motor vehicle crash deaths:
Sharing the road with trucks,
Use of safety belts, child seats and airbags,
Aggressive driving,
Inattentive drivers,
Impaired driving caused by alcohol, stress and even medical drugs.
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RoSPA is a registered charity: Registered Charity No: 207823 Patron: Her Majesty the Queen RoSPA Head Office: Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7ST, UK |
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