Are you driving home the safety message?

• 
• 2nd October 2008
• Quarrying
 

 

Nigel Gill discusses the implications of Corporate Manslaughter regulations for drivers within the quarry and beyond.

It is now over a year since the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came in to force, and yet many companies still don't understand the risks or address the issues raised by this important piece of legislation.

For quarrying companies, where there are all manner of health and safety issues in the workplace, the implications are immense.  Any accident that causes a fatality could see the firm's management team in court on manslaughter charges.  While it has yet to be seen whether this would lead to a prison term, it's certainly clear that it could tie a company up in legal proceedings for months or even years, affecting it both operationally and in terms of reputation.

Of course from a moral perspective, any company should prioritise the safety of its employees at all times, ensuring that they have safe tools and a safe environment in which to do their job.  The legislation ought to bring this moral obligation into sharp focus and, for those companies that take the trouble to understand it thoroughly; the law spells out just how wide-ranging the employer's obligation really is.

One of the key areas that employers need to consider is the issue of health and safety for employees who drive a vehicle as part of their job (ie, for any purpose other than commuting).  The legislation obliges the employer to take every possible precaution to safeguard their employees while they are on company business, whether the vehicle they are driving is owned or leased by the company or not.  An incident could be something as simple as an administration clerk dropping off the post on the way home. As a result, the employer could find itself just as liable for a fatal accident that takes place whilst an employee is driving his own vehicle on company business as they were if the employee was driving a company-owned vehicle on site.  It is imperative that the employer undertakes a risk assessment on every driver and vehicle that carries out any task on the company's behalf as part of its duty of care to staff and a watertight response to the legislation.

Assessing the Risks

Every employer has to do a risk assessment by law and advice is available from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to help companies carry out their risk assessment effectively.  It is essential to look at the full range of transport-related activities over a reasonable period of time - perhaps a typical working week - including company vehicles and vehicles used on company business, and the risk posed to staff by any visiting vehicles.  Typical activities a quarry operator might need to consider include the arrival and departure of vehicles to site, travel within the workplace, loading, unloading and securing loads, sheeting, coupling and vehicle maintenance work.

Once the quarry operator has identified the activities to be included in the risk assessment, they must then identify all the potential risks that could be associated with them.  This should start with the vehicles themselves and consider whether they are fit for purpose, well maintained and safe.  It should also include the routes and roadways used by vehicles answering questions such as: is there a clear traffic management system in place? Are they properly maintained? Are there hazards or obstructions?  Equally important are questions about driver behaviours and, indeed, driving skills.  Is there a risk of drivers becoming over-tired? Are procedural corners being cut to maintain productivity levels? Have they been adequately trained for the type of vehicle they are using and is that training up-to-date?

There are no hard and fast rules for the risk assessment, after all every quarry is different.  It is essential however, that the risk assessment is thorough and addresses what is actually happening on the ground, not simply the health and safety best practice laid down by policy and guidelines.  According to Corporate Manslaughter legislation, the employer must be able to demonstrate that every reasonable precaution has been taken to avoid accidents. That means ensuring that the risk assessment is up-to-date, that it factors in the views and feedback of employees, contractors and regular visitors to site and that it includes an accurate assessment of both vehicle and driver competence.

Operational Best Practice

Communicating health and safety best practice and building it in to the culture of an organisation is notoriously difficult but, in a quarrying environment where there are so many potential hazards, it's a business-critical requirement.

Including health and safety responsibilities in job descriptions and training is a good starting point and sharing information with both employees and any contractors on a day-to-day basis helps to keep safety issues front-of-mind.  The accident and near miss reporting system plays a key role in this as it allows the management team to highlight the health and safety issues on site and flag up any potential breeches of procedure so that these can be tightened up to help avoid further incidents.  It is important when sharing this information with colleagues to impart feedback on good health and safety behaviours as well as bad.  Not only does this prevent the accident reporting system from becoming a stick with which to beat a workforce who may already be cynical about health & safety, it also allows the quarry operator to reinforce positive messages about good health & safety practice.  As a result, the operator is delivering its duty of care by building an understanding of good practice and company policy amongst its employees.

Hidden Culpability

Alongside the clear risks of site traffic for quarrying companies comes the more insidious risks that can be involved in the use of employee-owned cars being used for business purposes by sales teams or managers.  Thanks to the tax burden, asset-ownership and administrative demands of running a company fleet, many companies now offer for a ‘cash for car' alternative.  What many do not appreciate, however, is that the company is just as culpable if an employee has a fatal accident whilst out on company business driving his own car as it would be if the employee were driving a company owned vehicle.

Again, it's all about risk assessment and due diligence and this starts with developing a positive driving culture within the business that helps people accept that their driving skills will be monitored and, if necessary, improved.  For example, at Andrews Sykes we keep a database of all employees who drive on company business and this is reviewed annually.  We also expect all employees who drive on company business to sit an online competency test that requires them to answer questions on driver behaviour and pass hazard perception tests.  If they pass this with a low risk score, they are not required to sit it again for two years.  With a medium score they have to undergo a one-hour online education session to help improve their skills and if their results indicate they might be at high risk they are sent for a half day one-to-one training session to improve their skills.

Of course, it's not all about the drivers' skills; ensuring the vehicle is roadworthy is also essential.  Many companies stipulate the maximum age for a vehicle at time of purchase but this needs to be policed and to include a maximum age for changing the vehicle too.  Maintenance is also key; the company needs to verify that MOTs and services being in line with manufacturers recommendations have been carried out and it can even be a good idea to strike a preferred supplier deal with a local garage to ensure that all repair and servicing work is verifiable.

Communicating Safety

Ultimately, Corporate Manslaughter laws are only there to encourage good health & safety behaviours and that's something that the quarrying industry takes very seriously.  Driving is often such a routine task, however, that it is sometimes overlooked as a serious risk factor and that's why communication is so important.  At Andrews Sykes, all our drivers receive regular fact sheets to update their driving skills and keep safety front of mind.  After all, assessing the risk from a purely operational perspective is all well and good, but unless the risk of human error is also addressed, an employer hasn't really covered all the bases.

Nigel Gill is operations support director at equipment hire company, Andrews Sykes.

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