February 2011 Newsletter

Transport Scotland - School Transport Safety Guide

Transport Scotland in association with Aberdeenshire Council, commissioned TRL to produce a practical guide highlighting current policy and good practice procedures pertaining to school transport safety.

Report
Guide

Distractions for Road users

Highway Code

Rule 148-150 of the Highway Code give rules and advice on avoiding distractions when driving or riding and the importance of exercising proper control of your vehicle at all times.

Research report on road user distraction

The European Transport Safety Council has produced a report on Minimising in Vehicle Distraction as part of its PRAISE project. This research document highlights that distractions play a role in 20-30% of all road collisions.

This report aims at offering employers insight on how to minimise distractions, covers in-vehicle distractions associated with the use of electronic devices including mobile phones and portable navigation devices. It provides a source of information and recommendations to employers.

RoSPA Factsheet on Distractions

A factsheet on the issue of distractions is available.

RoSPA Free Literature on vehicle technology

RoSPA has two documents on Vehicle Technology – one in the Driving for Work series and the other which is a Manager’s Guide to technology. These are freely available online in pdf format or in hard copy by contacting Duncan Vernon, Road Safety Manager (England), on 0121 248 2078.

ACPOS Festive Drink Drug Drive Campaign Update

The ACPOS Festive Drink Drug Drive Campaign was launched on 6 December at Police HQ Edinburgh, with Chief Constable David Strang, Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill and the Lord Advocate the Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC and ran until 3rd January 2011.

Over that four-week period a total of 426 offenders were caught driving whilst over the legal alcohol limit. A further 25 offenders were detected driving whilst under the influence of drugs and one offender was reported for driving whilst impaired through alcohol. This is an overall reduction compared to last year’s campaign which saw 460 drink drivers caught and a further 18 who were found to be unfit through drugs and 12 who were unfit through alcohol. The total number of repeat offenders caught this year is also down with consideration being given to seize 18 vehicles compared to 47 during last year’s campaign.

Over the course of the campaign several incidents of note were reported by forces, this is a selection of some of the more interesting events:

On 17 December 2010, in Bridge of Allan a member of the public reported a male person lying on the pavement next to a vehicle. The male then got to his feet and into a car, obviously under the influence of alcohol, and drove off. The Police were contacted and the vehicle stopped nearby. The male driver provided a reading of 177 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mililitres of breath, which was over 5 times the legal limit.
A male who was arrested in relation to drink driving offences on Saturday 11th December 2010 (reading at that time of 118 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath) attended at Dunoon Police Office on the afternoon of 13 December 2010 to produce his driving documents in respect of the original incident. He was at this time smelling of alcohol. On his departure from the Police Office he was stopped and failed the road side breath test. He subsequently produced a reading of 162 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, nearly five times the legal limit.
During the afternoon of Christmas Day, in the Scottish Borders a 31-year-old female, decided to test drive her child’s petrol driven quad bike in a public place, she collided and damaged parked vehicles and slightly injured herself. She later provided a positive breath test of over two and half times the legal limit and was also charged with driving without a licence or insurance along with various other offences.
In Kirkcaldy a 25-year-old male who was supervising a learner driver, was charged with being in charge of the vehicle whilst drunk, he provided a reading of over 3 ½ times the legal limit.

For fuller details of the campaign http://www.acpos.police.uk/

TISPOL

Finnish Police undertake random breath testing for drivers, Estonia and Spain see a fall in road casualties and Ireland set to review speed limits. This and much more from the European Traffic Police network.

Young Drivers at Work Project wins Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in November proudly announced that its Young Drivers at Work Project has won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for the Young Drivers at Work Project.

This Young Driver at Work project which was funded by the Department of Transport (DfT) and conducted with the help of the Department for Transport, Driving Standards Agency, local councils, RoadSafe and Tesco, provides interactive workshop materials for use within businesses. To ensure the workshop can be used by as many people as possible, an online toolkit is freely available at www.rospa.com/roadsafety/youngdriversatwork/

Eco Driving Tips from IAM to help keep fuel costs down

Recent increases in fuel costs won’t have escaped anyone’s attention. The IAM provide us with some eco-friendly driving tips to help keep the costs down.

Freight Best Practice – Update

New - Lorry Parking Pocket Guide

Are your drivers taking your vehicle and your customer’s load away overnight? Keep them informed with this handy FREE pocket sized guide that will help you keep better control of your fleet, and improve your drivers’ safety, and that of your loads, when operating away from home base. It will also help you to assure your customers that you are operating ‘best parking practice’.

This Pocket Guide provides helpful information on how to avoid being the target of crime, descriptions of parking locations, how to plan parking into a vehicle route, how to find appropriate parking and how drivers should best provide feedback to their Traffic Office or Transport Manager on the locations that they have used.

Endorsed by TruckPol this Guide is available to download FREE from the website for printing and distribution. Hard copies can also be ordered free of charge from the website or our Hotline. In these austere times, to ensure that all companies benefit from best practice guidance, we have had to limit the number of printed copies per company to ten. We are happy to provide print ready PDFs and larger companies have already used this facility. Other programme users have requested smaller quantities and have implemented a process whereby drivers are asked to read, return and then sign a sheet for audit purposes.

Order your FREE copies here or call the Hotline on 0300 123 1250.