2 Key Elements You Need to Combat The Biggest WHS Risk
UNDERSTANDING WHERE THE RISK IS
When it comes to finding ways to improve safety at work, it's important to understand where most of the risk is. Safe Work Australia statistics show that nearly half of all workplace fatalities and serious trauma are motor-vehicle related. It’s occurring in both heavy and light vehicles, impacting both white-collar and blue-collar workers. So, how to address it?
Getting road-safety right within an organisation can be challenging because, typically, much of it happens off-premises. How do you get visibility and protect people "working behind the wheel".
The good news is that it can be done. However, to get it done properly it's important to understand two key things:
where most of the risk is, and
the level of information required to properly identify and address it.
If you're only addressing 'high-level' speeding, you could be missing up to 90% of the risk
There's a common misconception, held by many executives and information system suppliers, that when addressing speed, it's only necessary to address risk-events over and above 100km/h. Whilst 'high-level' speeding must be addressed, it could be argued that if that's all you're addressing, then you've only covered about 10% of the risk. That's because you'd have not recognised the need to address the risk of 'low-level' speeding; its impact on fatalities AND serious trauma.
Here are 2 key statistics that illustrate the enormity of 'low-level' speeding risk:
1/ MOST FATALITIES OCCUR IN SPEED ZONES BELOW 100km/h
MOTOR VEHICLE FATALITIES BY SPEED ZONE AUSTRALIA 2018
2/ THE VAST BULK OF SERIOUS TRAUMA OCCURS BELOW 60km/h
• Most vehicle-related serious trauma occurs at speed zones 60km/h and below
• The ratio of serious trauma to fatalities is currently running at 9:1
Source: NRSPP Quick Facts
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH ‘LOW-LEVEL’ SPEEDING
In the NRSPP Webinar "Debunking the Myths Around 'Low-Level' Speeding" Prof. Ian Johnston cited research findings suggesting that "if vehicles were doing 80 in a 60 zone, the risk of a casualty crash was about 30 times what it was if they were doing the speed limit".
TRAVELLING SPEED AND THE RISK OF INVOLVEMENT IN A CASUALTY CRASH RELATIVE TO TRAVELLING 60 KM/H IN A 60 KM/H ZONE
There is significant risk in 'low-speed' zones. Therefore, to address safety, organisations need to find ways to moderate their workers' driving behaviour across all speed zones; not just focus on speeding risk over and above 100km/h.
Some organisations implement telematics systems believing that it will help them address safety; buyer-beware - outcomes vary in terms of both degree and duration of outcomes. With telematics, as with any data system, the results you get are heavily reliant on the quality of the information feed.
When the desired safety outcome is proactive risk prevention, there are two key factors that must be satisfied:
gathering information across all posted speed zones (for reasons outlined above), and
second-by-second data capture.
Second-by-second data capture, it's the difference between being able to not just analyse 'who is going to crash' but 'why they're going to crash'.
Once the 'why' is understood, you can provide targeted interventions BEFORE they crash. This will:
dramatically transform your safety processes;
get traction with savvy insurers.
In Summary
For the reasons outlined above, to know where the risk is, your safety system must gather information:
across all posted speed limits.
with second-by-second data capture.
Cutting corners on the above is the road to regret. To put that in context, ask yourself this - when it comes to preventing fatalities and serious trauma, will a safety information system that ignores 90% of the risk:
protect workers?
protect directors and officers?
stand up in a Coroner’s court?
Please feel welcome to contact us if you’d like to discuss your organisation’s safety systems and processes.
