A matter of life and death

The UN has called on private and public sector fleets around the world to develop and implement policies and practices that will reduce crash risks for vehicle occupants and other road users

Globally 1.2 million people die on the roads each year and 50 million people are injured making, according to the UN, road safety a worldwide epidemic requiring a global response.
    
The international ‘Make Roads Safe’ campaign, led by the FIA Foundation and, in the UK, backed by RoadSafe, last year launched a global online petition calling for a UN debate on improving global road safety. That campaign culminated this year in the United Nations General Assembly adopting a series of resolutions aimed at alleviating death and injury on the world’s roads.
    
Five of the main risk factors identified by the UN as causes of road deaths and injury are:

• non-use of seat-belts and child restraints
• non-use of helmets by cyclists and motorcyclists
• drinking and driving
• inappropriate and excessive speed 
• lack of an appropriate road infrastructure 

Fleets around the world - led by international companies - have a crucial role to play in improving the safety of their at-work driving employees and other road users.

Campaigning efforts
RoadSafe, the road safety partnership of leading companies in the motor and transport industries in Britain, the government and road safety professionals, is at the forefront of that campaign and is now extending its reach overseas.
    
Director Adrian Walsh said: “The United Nations General Assembly has given businesses a challenge: by encouraging fleet-owning organisations in both the private and public sectors to develop and implement policies and practices that would reduce road-crash risks. Our network does just this and is now committed to spreading good practice to Europe and into the developing world.”
    
Crucial to spreading the corporate road safety gospel is the UK’s ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme, which RoadSafe manages on behalf of the Department for Transport.
    
The ‘Driving for Better Business’ programme is using ‘business champions’ drawn from all branches of industry and commerce and operating small and large fleets to spread the financial, legal and moral benefits of their at-work driving safety initiatives to their peers.
    
Among the organisations supporting the initiative is Johnson & Johnson, the United States-headquartered multi-national healthcare company.
    
Joining Mr Walsh at the UN’s first ever debate on ‘improving global road safety’ was Gabriel Kardos, who manages Johnson & Johnson’s SAFE Fleet programme in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
    
He said: “We want to be involved in outreach work to influence more organisations to promote road safety. Road casualties are a global epidemic gaining little attention in the media and if nothing is done the situation will only get worse contributing to more senseless death and injury.”
    
Road deaths are now the number one killer of young people aged 10-24 worldwide. The latest forecasts show that unless action is taken, more than 20 million lives could be lost from 2000-2015, with a doubling of the annual death rate by 2030, unless the international community begins to take serious action to tackle the problem.

Kenyan project
One example of how individual countries can reduce road casualties is a fleet safety project in Kenya.
    
Six agencies working in Kenya have been involved in the programme that has seen a project team give training to staff from Care, Oxfam, Goal, ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency), the United Nations’ World Food Programme and World Vision.
    
The training of 1,250 people has focused on awareness briefings, senior management training and transport operation sessions. In addition, ‘trainer of trainers’ sessions were held for all participating agencies to develop a team of drivers who would be able to provide on-going training within their organisations.
    
Mr Walsh said: “Those initiatives have now gained senior management support within the humanitarian organisations and are being included in fleet safety policies and being put into practice in the field.
    
“As these organisations work in so many developing countries across the world - where road crashes are a major cause of death and injury - RoadSafe believes that they can help spread the importance of road safety.”

Case study
Johnson & Johnson launched its global fleet safety programme, known as SAFE Fleet, more than a decade ago.
   
The organisation has more than 250 operating companies in 57 countries employing 119,200 people worldwide.
   
The seriousness of the company’s attitude to working towards the ultimate goal of zero road traffic accidents involving staff driving on business is underlined by accident statistics and the interventions resulting from crash analysis being a focal point at board meetings, management meetings and staff appraisals alongside business results.
   
It is that across the board - top to bottom - focus on road safety that has seen Johnson & Johnson drives its accidents per million miles rate down from 8.76 in 1995 to 5.3 last year. The 39 per cent reduction has been achieved at the same time as the fleet size has increased 157 per cent to more than 35,000 vehicles, almost all of these cars.
   
Road safety experts say that 12 crashes per million miles is an average, although the figures for some organisations are as high as 25.
   
Gabriel Kardos, the Hungary-based SAFE Fleet manager of Johnson & Johnson Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Reducing global road deaths is a serious issue, but if everyone - the private sector, governments, non-governmental organisations and individuals - get involved and all work together we can prevent a lot of tragedy on our roads worldwide.”
   
Road safety is totally ingrained in the Johnson & Johnson culture to the extent that it was one of only a handful of private companies to sit on the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, which builds global awareness around the need for better road safety.
   
In addition, the company spearheaded and continues to be involved in a fleet safety benchmarking global alliance of pharmaceutical, medical, consumer, petro-chemical and other companies that share best practice to further promote occupational road risk management.
   
Mr Kardos said: “There is no competition among companies around the promotion of road safety.  It is in society’s interest to share policies and best practices around this important issue to keep our drivers and those who use our roads safe and injury free both on and off the job.”

For more information
Web: www.roadsafe.com and www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/drivingforwork/index.htm