Survey Road safety

BREAKING THE CYCLE F

CM’s recent survey on safety on our roads highlights a stark reality — while many fi rms are taking action, and individuals’ concern is growing, the industry’s response is seen as lacking conviction and leadership. Elaine Knutt reports.

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IF YOU CATCH A NEWS report about a cyclist being in a fatal collision with a construction HGV, what’s your fi rst thought? For too many construction professionals and clients, it’s “I hope the vehicle wasn’t anything to do with any of our projects” or “I hope it wasn’t linked to any of our suppliers”. Because if either of these scenarios turns out to be true, you could be facing the awful gut-churning realisation that an individual lost their life through circumstances your business might have been able to alter. Between 2008 and 2013, 53% of the

82 cycle fatalities in London involved an HGV; in 2011, seven out of 11 fatalities involved construction vehicles. But has the rising toll of accidents been matched by rising awareness of the issue in the industry at large? Has awareness been followed by action, for instance, to adopt the new Transport for London-backed Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) or Construction Logistics and

24 | SEPTEMBER 2014 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) initiatives? Or does the industry think we need to pursue a different approach to reducing accidents? The CM Safe on our Streets survey

aimed to fi nd out what the industry really thinks about extending its safety responsibilities beyond the site hoardings. The survey drew 371 responses across the contracting and client community (see right). The majority (72%) spoke from a site and project management perspective rather than logistics, transport or health and safety (15.5%) specialists. But they were nonetheless close to the issues: 52% from companies that directly operate a vehicle fl eet while 78% contracted with suppliers that operate fl eets. Of these two groups, nearly two-thirds

were directly or contractually responsible for 3.5-tonne HGVs, while 49% were associated with the tipper trucks frequently implicated in road accidents. The largest single group (25%) also worked for Tier 1 contractors over £200m,

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