According to a recent, joint publication by ETSC (European Transport Safety Council) and the PRAISE project (Preventing Road Accidents and Injuries for the Safety of Employees), young drivers at work and in traffic is the category most at risk when it comes to road safety.
According to the data provided in the publication, entitled “Managing young drivers at work”, between 2001 and 2010, around 140,000 young people aged 15 to 30 were killed in road collisions in the EU27. In 2010, 9,150 young people aged 15 to 30 were killed in road collisions, compared with 18,670 in 2013. In other words, road fatalities have more than halved amongst the age group over the space of 9 years.
Of course, if on one hand there have been improvements, on the other hand young drivers continue to be a high-risk category, young males above all. As regards young drivers, the road mortality rate for them is 69% higher than for the rest of the population. If we consider specifically young males, the date is increasing even more, up to 168%. One in four young people who die in Europe do so as a result of a road collision.
If young drivers are such a high risk category, it means they do not only impact on themselves, but also provide a greater risks to their passengers and to other road users. The report continues by saying that for each young driver killed, an additional 1.2 passengers or other road users are killed during the same accident. Collisions involving a young vehicle user account for 37% of total road traffic deaths.
With such a high rate of young drivers involved in traffic collisions, the need for targeted actions in companies who employ young drivers, is self-evident.
Just which actions, exactly, do companies need to consider in order to protect young drivers at work, as well as other road users?
Just which actions, exactly, do companies need to consider in order to protect young drivers at work, as well as other road users?
