Many employers are failing to consider road safety when it comes to staff who drive on the job, and in doing so are breaching their legal responsibility to provide a safe work environment, a new study by Queensland University of Technology has found.
Researcher Tamara Banks, from QUT's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), said despite vehicle crashes being the most common cause of compensated work fatalities, few organisations were managing their work-related road risks.
"While many organisations are committed to maintaining the health and safety of employees within their workplace, it appears that risk management often fails to include road safety," she said.
"This is directly contrary to the spirit of the Australian Occupational Health and Safety legislation, the purpose of which is to make workplaces and work practices safer for everyone."
Dr Banks said employers who failed to take reasonable care to avoid exposing employees to unnecessary risks of traffic injury could face substantial fines.
"In Queensland the maximum penalties are $150,000 and/or three years jail for an individual and $750,000 for a corporation," she said.
"In recent years several legal cases have been heard in Australia with respect to work-related road incidents."
Dr Banks' study revealed while employees believed on-the-road driver training to be the best method of improving road safety, group discussions focusing on occupational road safety problems and solutions were found to be more effective.
"Driver training was most effective when it incorporated driver education," she said.
"What this shows is that it is not about getting people behind the wheel and teaching them how to handle an out-of-control vehicle, it is about teaching employees how to drive safely in the first instance."
She said organisations needed to adopt a comprehensive risk management approach that included multiple initiatives to achieve optimal safety outcomes.
"For example an awareness raising initiative could be targeted at employees who are in the pre-contemplation stage of road safety behaviour change," she said. "This initiative could be complemented by an initiative that provides ongoing advice and performance feedback to consolidate safety gains and prevent relapses to unsafe behaviours."
Dr Banks said it was essential for organisations to adopt comprehensive risk management practices which included written fleet safety policies, conducting and evaluating fleet safety training and monitoring and managing driver and vehicle risks.
Dr Banks is also a member of QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation and this study was funded by the NRMA-ACT Road Safety Trust.
Media contact - Sandra Hutchinson, media officer, 07 3138 2999 or s3.hutchinson@qut.edu.au
** A high res photo of Dr Banks is available for media use
