This latest piece is very timely, as the winter nights get longer and weather conditions can be poor. Fleet risk is top of mind for Simon Marsh, CEO, at VisionTrack.
As this year’s Road Safety Week focuses attention on accident prevention, the UK’s leading video telematics provider VisionTrack launches a fleet risk reduction campaign and calls on fleets to take action. A third of all traffic collisions are work-related – a stark figure that highlights the need for the fleet sector to unite in taking a zero-tolerance approach to the main causes of road deaths and injuries.
Government figures estimate that work-related driving is responsible for 20 fatalities and 250 serious injuries every week, which is simply unacceptable at a time when vehicles have never been safer. As a co-headline sponsor of Brake’s Road Safety Week, VisionTrack is using this opportunity to make an urgent call to action to eliminate fleet risk that is costing lives and causing unnecessary suffering.
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As part of this, we’re launching our own campaign, so that we can work with customers and the wider fleet community to tackle some of the biggest threats facing their drivers and other road users. Our campaign is designed to educate and engage with drivers and companies, with the aim of mitigating the impact of fleet risk on the road network. We’re calling on vehicle operators to target five key pillars of fleet safety, which can contribute to a dramatic reduction in road collisions and ultimately save lives:
· Slow Down – exceeding the speed limit and travelling too fast for prevailing driving conditions contributed to 27% of fatal collisions in 2020, as well as 16% of collisions in which a serious injury occurred, and 13% of total collisions [UK police statistics].
· Belt Up – not wearing a seatbelt contributed to 30% of road deaths in 2021, a figure that increased to 47% at night. Despite this, more than 5% of drivers still do not use a seatbelt [Department for Transport].
· Take a Break – fatigue contributes to about 4% of fatal road crashes and 2% of all collisions in the UK, but the true figure is likely to be far higher as tiredness is difficult to spot and test for [UK police statistics].
· Just Drive – using a mobile phone behind the wheel makes motorists four times more likely to be in a crash, while reaction times when using a hands-free phone are 30% slower than if a driver is at the drink-drive limit [Brake].
· Stay Focused – between 10% and 30% of road collisions are caused by driver distraction [European Commission], with 51 fatalities and 2,023 recorded in UK resulting from in-vehicle distraction in 2020 [Department of Transport].
Working with our key partners in the UK and internationally – including Brake, Together for Safer Roads and Driving for Better Business – our objective is to champion road safety. Road Safety Week is crucial to raising awareness and promoting important messages, but we wanted to introduce our own initiative that maintains the focus throughout the year. Our Fleet Risk Reduction campaign will be a key part of our commitment to making the roads a safer place for all and we look forward to announcing further details shortly.
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