Road traffic legislation imposes specific requirements on employers in respect of vehicle use and maintenance. Employers also have responsibility under Health and Safety legislation to ensure so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees and others who may be affected by their work activities. This includes the activity of driving on public roads.
The general duties under health and safety at work law to protect workers and others from risks arising out of work activities are very broad. They overlap with other legislation and are capable of application to work-related driving. However there is an acceptance that where public and worker safety is adequately protected by more specific and detailed law enforced by another authority, this should be used rather than health and safety at work legislation.
Road traffic law is enforced by the Police and others such as the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA). The Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) will in the vast majority of cases take the lead in the investigation of road traffic incidents on the public highway. The police will also be responsible for enforcing road traffic legislation in some other public places such as hospital grounds and supermarket car parks.
However HSENI will have an interest in work-related road traffic incidents in the following situations:
- where work vehicles are engaged in specific work activities (other than travelling) on the public highway (e.g., hedge-cutting, refuse collection, unloading, construction, traffic management, gritting etc)
- where workers (not in vehicles) are engaged in specific work activities (other than travelling) on the public highway (e.g. construction work, traffic management, repairs to street furniture, refuse collection, street cleaning, etc)
- where vehicles connected with particular work premises are manoeuvring into, out of, or in close proximity to those work premises
- where people are involved in roadside vehicle repair, recovery or rescue and where it is clearly evident that that suitable arrangements for the safety of those persons and/or vehicle were not implemented.
HSENI may also assist the PSNI where the police have sufficient reason to suspect that safety management failures have been a significant contributory factor in the incident. Formal enforcement action by HSE will usually be confined to significant and demonstrable failures to manage the health and safety of work activities on or near the public highway by employers and the self-employed