Safety campaigners are trying to persuade the government to make work-related road collisions reportable under RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations). It was a notable gap in the recently published road safety strategy, and the Transport Select Committee has recently heard evidence as to why this this gap should be filled.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is currently consulting on changes to RIDDOR until 30 June, and operators can also send comments directly to RIDDORconsultation2026@hse.gov.uk.
The biggest win, say campaigners, would be accurate data about the causes of collisions. Currently the police investigate collisions at the roadside but with an eye to culpability, not causation. And, although collision report STATS19 has space for journey purpose, up to half of responding officers do not complete it.
Driving for Better Business estimates that half of the vehicles on the road are driven for work. Currently the Highway Code places the highest responsibility on the largest vehicles, and successive waves of London regulation have targeted HGVs as the most dangerous vehicles. Yet the PACTS report What kills most on the road? showed that, by mileage, vans are the most dangerous vehicles to other road users. In the capital, Transport for London (TfL) has shown that the current data gap about work-related collisions most seriously under-estimates the fatalities caused by at-work cars and vans.
The logistics industry has invested heavily in driver training, cameras, ADAS, telematics, routeing software and managing road risk. Meanwhile, HGV drivers share the roads with 4 million vans, and up to 10 million grey fleet cars, for whom training standards, regulation and risk management is far lower, yet whose risk to the public is arguably far greater, because they are so numerous.
Policy and safety initiatives are based on data but, as the PACTS and TfL work shows, the biggest road safety risks may remain unaddressed.
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