Quarter of road deaths work related

Businesses are being urged to wise up to road safety as over one in four road deaths involve drivers who are at work, it was revealed yesterday.

Some 850 people died and 6,012 were seriously injured last year by motorists who were either working or on their way to work, reports Brake, whose research was based on figures from the Department for Transport (DfT).

Companies are currently required to report on-site accidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) but road safety charity Brake is calling for this to be extended to all fatal and serious injury crashes involving people at work.

Jools Townsend, head of fleet safety at Brake, says: "Road safety campaigners have suspected for many years that a large proportion of road crashes involve people driving for work.

"These figures demonstrate how important it is that, firstly, the government takes corporate responsibility for at-work driving seriously and, secondly, all employers take the life-savings steps of educating employees on safe driving and effectively managing their road risk."

According to the DfT, road casualties dropped from 310,687 in 1995 to 271,017, a fall of 15 per cent.