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rate might be
ny haulier about to despatch a novice driver off on his first day's work behind the wheel would do well to hand him or her a copy of a recent coroner's report as an example of how not to behave in the event of an accident.
The report, issued in August, concerned a tragic accident on the A5 in Shropshire, in which a woman was killed when her car spun out of control and struck another vehicle.
Evidence at the inquest revealed the crash occurred when Pauline Evans, a hospice carer from Oswestry, was approaching two trucks which had pulled up to allow a third lorry to emerge from a lay-by. Although the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death, he also launched a scathing attack on all three truck drivers for leaving the scene of the crash before the police even arrived. "I am disgusted by their deplorable and irresponsible attitude," he said.
Although most of Britain's truck drivers would recognise that they have professional and moral responsibilities in the event of a road traffic accident, it has begun to emerge that the requirements placed upon them— and the degree to which they fulfil them—are haphazard and disjointed. According to some industry observers, the procedures for reporting and gathering information on road crashes have been fashioned in a very disorganised way. There are worries that this means data on the frequency and type of accidents involving trucks are inconsistent and sub-standard.
The issue has been brought into the limelight recently by the news that a new independent task force, set up to look at ways of reducing accidents involving people driving at work, is considering radical changes in the regulations governing accident reporting.
The task force—made up of road transport industry bodies, safety groups, government departments and the police—is considering whether all accidents should in future be reported to the Health and Safety Executive.
Workplace accidents
At present, accidents on the road are not covered by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RI DDOR). These force employers to report every accident in the workplace, but because the public highways are not deemed part of the workplace the data exclude road accidents.
"Off road, the HSE has the same powers that it has over any other industrial accident, and those powers are comprehensive," says Geoff Dunning, the northern regional director of the Road Haulage Association and a member of the task force. "But if you're on the road and somebody is hurt or killed, then it's entirely a police matter: the HSE does not get involved."
The attraction of making the HSE the focal point of accident reporting is the opportunity to paint a true picture of the extent of workrelated road accidents. But it would also open up the possibility that hauliers and their insurers would be encouraged to use standardised procedures for reporting.
At present many hauliers use accident report forms supplied by their insurers, which can differ from company to company. And though some road transport firms have fairly rigid procedures for drivers at the scene of a crash, others offer only basic guidance.
"The big firms may give drivers very dear and precise instructions as to what to do in the event of a road traffic accident," says Dunning. "They will have a standard accident report form, which they will be expected to fill out. This records what happened and which vehides were involved.
For example, it will also record whether there were witnesses present, what the weather conditions were like, whether it was
ciay or night and if the vehicles had their lights on. Some firms even supply disposable cameras to show where everything is.
"But at the other end of the scale, drivers may get no guidance at all."
Dunning, along with others in the industry, believes some hauliers mistakenly see this extensive gathering of information as a bureaucratic headache rather than an opport _nifty to reduce the risks of accidents happen-tg again.
Risk management
The whole concept of risk management is to look at what might go wrong rather than what I as gone wrong, and there are sound busiess cases for doing this. We know insurance remiums are increasing steadily, and insur( rs are very interested in what operators are ( oing in terms of risk management," he says. According to the Freight Transport Association's Driver's Handbook, drivers
i wolved in accidents should routinely swap ames, addresses and employer details, and j roduce an insurance certificate if someone is i ijured. The accident must also be reported to t ie police as soon as possible, and certainly within 24 hours. The driver's employer must also be notified. Other details required include: • The names and addresses of drivers and owners, and the registration marks of all other vehicles involved; • Insurance company details of other drivers; • The names and addresses of witnesses; • The number of any police constable present; • Details of the width of the road, the position of the vehides, skid marks, and also the position of traffic signs, traffic islands or turnings in the area.
To streamline the process, road safety organisation Brake is soon to produce a report for the Department of Transport, Local Government and Regions, which will recommend standardised procedures for drivers at the scene of accidents.
This follows research undertaken with experts at the University of Huddersfield, which revealed problems with the variety and range of information gathered.
The report will propose a handbook for all drivers, and also a "bump card", a standardised document for collecting information at the time of the crash.
"We want to have some sort of standard card that drivers fill out at the scene—not too long and not too short," says Brake's policy and research officer, Cathy Keeler. "Then it would get passed on to an appointed person within the company.
"At the moment companies are recording all sorts of things, some relevant, some not. So it's hard to say if any action they have taken to improve fleet safety is actually working.
"The general trend is to not report enough detail. Near misses, bumps and scrapes are things they tend not to report. Yet it's often a matter of luck that its a bump or scrape and not a person who was hit."
Road transport giant Securicor Omega Logistics says it has devoted two pages to accident reporting procedures in its company handbook. Step one is to swap names, addresses and vehicle and employer details; step two is to contact the immediate manager while still at the scene, who notifies head office; and step three is to fill out at once the accident report form supplied by the company insurer and kept in every vehicle.
According to Brake, hauliers have nothing to lose and everything to gain from improvements in the system of accident reporting.
"Good information, used properly, can be fed into all sorts of systems and can identify what kind of training drivers need," says Cathy Keeler. "A lot of companies do not realise the benefits."