Lawford Kidd's Blog

As many as 86% of company car fleets have experienced an accident in the past 12 months, according to a recent report by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

The report was commissioned in autumn 2014, and produced a number of interesting findings, including:

• Only 14% of fleets confirmed they had not had any vehicle incidents in their fleet in the last 12 months.
• Every fleet had suffered on-road incidents that were caused by their driver, i.e. an ‘at fault’ incident.
• Only 33% of fleets said at-fault drivers faced some sort of punitive measure, i.e. fine, excess payments, etc.
• Over half said they didn’t offer any post-incident driver training as a means of reducing the risk of repeat incidents.

According to Government figures, between 2008 and 2013 3,493 people were killed in accidents involving a driver/rider driving for work, including 515 in 2013.

Drunk pedestrians can be a major cause of traffic accidents, according to new research by price comparison website Confused.com.

The research shows that over 6,000 ‘drunk’ pedestrians have been injured on UK roads since 20111, and many of these ‘drunk walking’ accidents are happening over the Christmas period.

Drunk pedestrians are most at risk of injury on UK roads between the times of 22:00-23:59, perhaps as a result of a long night of drinking. Men are apparently the most likely to drink-walk, and account for more than three quarters (79%) of all drunk pedestrian road incidents.

Three companies were ordered to pay a total of £232,000 in fines and costs after two workers on an Exeter building site suffered severe injuries when the platform they were working on collapsed and fell four storeys down a lift shaft.

One of the companies had been served with a prohibition notice by the HSE following an inspection at the site, which banned them from working until safety measures had been put in place to stop workers falling down the lift shaft.

A wooden platform was then erected over the shaft but two weeks later this collapsed, sending Ricki Slocombe and Matthew Blackmore falling to the ground floor.

The number of offshore oil and gas leaks that could potentially lead to a major incident continues to fall, new safety statistics have revealed.

But Steve Walker, the head of offshore safety at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), has warned industry not to be complacent following the encouraging figures. He said:

"While we welcome the continued downward trend, the industry will need continued focus to achieve its target of halving the number of hydrocarbon releases by April 2013. The major gas release from the Elgin platform at the end of March was a salutary reminder of the potential consequences that such releases can present.