Road safety campaigners have taken their message to Westminster on a vintage Routemaster London bus and called on the Government to legislate to encourage higher road safety standards from UK businesses.
BigChange CEO Martin Port, founder of the Leaders for Life road safety at work campaign, organised the mission to Westminster. He was joined on the bus by the racing driver Nick Hamilton and representatives from the road safety charity Brake.
The bus is owned and was driven by Sir Peter Hendy CBE, the chairman of Network Rail and former Commissioner of Transport for London.
Martin Port, founder and CEO of BigChange, comments: “We went to Westminster because we want politicians to drive higher safety standards on UK roads. More than 500 people a year are killed in the UK as a result of crashes involving people driving for work. While responsible business leaders are already improving road safety standards in their own organisations and we are in a position to be able to help them with that, we want Government to legislate to hold everyone who employs company drivers to the same high standards.”
“The UK should be aiming to achieve the highest road safety standards in the world. Vehicle tracking devices should be compulsory for all vehicles used on company business, and all organisations employing people who drive for work – whether in a truck, company car or their own vehicle – should have a nominated director responsible for road safety policy and reporting on KPIs such as miles driven, speeding incidents and time and distance driven.”
Samuel Nahk, Senior Public Affairs Officer at Brake, comments: “There are many things that business leaders can do to encourage safer driving at work. They can make sure drivers are not using their phones at work, that they are not exceeding the speed limit and that they are sticking to their working hours and taking the appropriate rest breaks. Leaders should also set an example to their people and make sure that everyone is working together to make our roads as safe as possible.”
Nic Hamilton, racing driver and ambassador for the Leaders for Life campaign, comments: “My cars are built for driving to the limit, but the roads aren’t and people need to understand how dangerous the roads can be. It is all about getting from A to B as safely as possible and people need to understand the consequences of driving erratically. I race on a circuit but I don’t race on the road. There is absolutely nothing to gain from racing on the road and it is super important to drive home the fact that people need to be as safe as possible.”
1,793 reported road deaths in Britain in 2017
The latest annual figures from the Department for Transport show there were 1,793 reported road deaths in Britain in 2017, five a day on average, and 170,993 casualties of all severities. It is believed that around a third of fatal crashes would have involved someone driving for work
Leaders for Life was developed by BigChange in partnership with road safety charity Brake to encourage business leaders to become ambassadors for safer driving in their workplaces. The company is providing driving analysis technology free of charge to the leaders of medium and large UK businesses to help them understand and improve their own driving.
