What you need to know
Guidance: what you need to know – workplace transport
Connect looks at the most common
types of accidents involving workplace transport and what measures
can be introduced to reduce the likelihood of accidents.
Headlines
- 45 workers were killed and over 5,000 injured in workplace
transport accidents in 2008/09
- These figures don’t include workers injured or killed on public
roads while driving for work
- Being struck by a moving vehicle was the third highest cause of
accidental death in the workplace (2008/09), after falls from a
height and being struck by a moving or falling object
- Forklift trucks are the vehicle most commonly involved in
accidents, but there are a significant number of accidents
involving Large Goods Vehicles (LGV) and cars.
What vehicles are involved?
- cars and vans
- forklift trucks
- Light and Heavy Goods Vehicles (LGV, HGV)
- industrial trucks and dumper trucks
- mobile equipment
- straddle carriers
- rubber-tyred gantries
- self-propelled machinery
- motorcycles and bicycles.
What are the most common accidents with workplace
transport?
The most common reported workplace
transport accidents are:
- people struck by a moving vehicle
- people falling from a vehicle
- people injured while inside a vehicle during a collision
- materials falling from a vehicle onto a person
- collapse/overturn of a vehicle (injuring the driver).
Around a quarter of all workplace vehicle related deaths occur
while a vehicle is
reversing.
What does the law say?
The Management of
Health and Safety at Work Regulations, 1999 requires
employers to carry out risks assessments. If there are ever any
vehicles on your work site, you’ll need to risk assess tasks
involving these vehicles.
The Workplace (Health,
Safety and Welfare) Regulations, 1992 requires workplaces
to be organised to allow vehicles and pedestrians to move around
safely. For example, there should be adequate lighting and the
ground should be even and free from pot holes. Other requirements
include separation between vehicles and pedestrians, suitable
indication of traffic routes and traffic routes free from
obstructions.
The Provision and Use
of Work Equipment Regulations, 1998 (PUWER) requires all
work equipment to be fit for purpose, maintained and inspected.
This includes any vehicles used for work. Additional requirements
apply to lift trucks which carry a seated ride-on operator. See
Rider-operated Lift
Trucks: Operator Training L117, Approved Code of Practice.
The Lifting
Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations, 1998 (LOLER)
require a thorough examination of industrial lift trucks.
The Health and Safety
(Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 defines signs
which should be provided and displayed at work. These include signs
warning of, or
prohibiting, industrial vehicles, and
prohibiting or
mandating pedestrian access.
Where signs are needed to indicate sharp bends, speed limits and
one-way systems etc, use the standard road signs as prescribed in
the Traffic Signs
Regulations and General Directions 2002 and in the
Highway Code.
Construction sites will need to take account of the requirements
for vehicles in the Construction (Design
and Management) Regulations 2007. For example, Regulation
36 details requirements for traffic routes on a construction site
while Regulation 37 covers the control of vehicles.
In the Reporting of Injuries,
Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
(RIDDOR) some dangerous occurrences (which must be reported)
include the collapse of a wall as a result of a vehicle colliding
with it and an explosion or fire in a vehicle (such as a dumper
truck) that results in the stoppage of that vehicle for more than
24 hours.
The
Smoke-free (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007
explains how vehicles used at work are covered by smoke-free
legislation.
What should I do?
Measures to reduce the likelihood of workplace transport
accidents can be considered in three groups:
- site design
- vehicle issues
- systems of work.
Site design
- route planning: plan routes to separate
pedestrians from vehicles and to reduce the need to reverse, e.g.
with a one-way system
- engineering: where pedestrians need to cross
traffic routes, indicate this with dropped kerbs; avoid steep
gradients and overhead cables; provide traffic routes on firm
ground, minimising sharp and blind corners
- parking: mark out parking areas for vehicles
with paint. To be even more effective, provide guide humps and
rubber stops in parking bays
- speed reduction: use speed ramps where
necessary and speed limit signs
- signs: use traffic lights and appropriate
warning signs
- environment: make sure all areas are well lit
and that lighting is checked and maintained
- good housekeeping: remove obstructions and, in
particular, keep delivery areas tidy.
Vehicle issues
- standard vehicle features: make sure vehicles
have suitable and effective headlights, brakes, bumpers and horns,
and sufficient mirrors to reduce blind spots. Provide seat belts
for drivers and passengers
- additional vehicle features: CCTV, rear lens
or radar sensors to provide extra safety when reversing. Speed
limiters and data recorders could also be provided
- inspection and maintenance: documented daily
and weekly safety checks; regular maintenance and cleaning. In
particular, mirrors and windows should be kept clean to maintain
visibility.
Systems of work
- information: make sure all drivers have
adequate information – for example, provide unfamiliar drivers with
a map showing routes and parking areas
- supervision: visitors on foot should be
supervised, otherwise they may end up in an area for vehicles; new,
inexperienced or young workers may need extra supervision. Provide
a banksman for vehicles when reversing or making other difficult
manoeuvres
- controls: restrict vehicle movements at times
of day (e.g. start, lunchtime, end) when there are more people
moving around. Drivers not involved in loading or unloading can
stay in a rest room or other safe area while their vehicle is being
loaded or unloaded. Prohibit access to vehicle areas for those who
don’t need to be there. Also, look at prohibiting overtaking
- training: assess training needs and provide
training for drivers. Train drivers to reverse into spaces and
drive out rather than drive in and reverse out as they are more
likely to hit someone coming out of a space than going in
- people: check suitability of employees for
driving roles and regularly check driving licenses. Arrange
vision checks for drivers and medicals where appropriate. Monitor
driver hours and make sure regular breaks are taken. Smoking is a
distraction as well as a health hazard – remind staff that smoking
in work vehicles is against the law and enforce the rules through
supervision
- PPE: people who need to work near moving
vehicles should wear high visibility clothing, appropriate
protective clothing (such as steel toe capped boots and hard hats)
and avoid loose clothing which could get caught in a
vehicle.
A future article in Connect will look in more detail at managing
occupational road risk.
IOSH Links
The IOSH Midland Branch, North District, are organising a
seminar on
workplace transport safety on 14 April 2010.
HSE Links
The HSE have two detailed research reports which will provide
more information on this topic.
The HSE workplace transport sub-site can be found here.
There is a separate sub-site devoted to preventing falls from
vehicles at the HSE
website.
Useful free publications from the HSE on workplace transport
include:
Other Links
The HSE have two detailed research reports which will provide
more information on this topic.
Safe movement of vehicles in the workplace from the Australian
commission for occupational safety and
health.
Other sources concentrate on driving for work away from the
workplace, although they provide some advice relevant to workplace
transport: