Lord Digby Jones will launch 515 balloons at a business road safety event to show the number of people who died in the UK in just one year as a result of work related journeys.
Black balloons will fill the sky above the HQ of UK road safety organisation, the TTC Group, in Telford, Shropshire, today (September 17) as part of a campaign to encourage the business world to help cut workplace road deaths and injuries.
With the Government’s latest statistics on employee road deaths to be published on September 24, the international businessman and former UK Trade Minister, who “bangs the drum” about how businesses must change in the 21st century, will talk about how company bosses can protect “the bottom line” while helping to save lives at the same time.
The candid cross-bench peer, a former UK Director-General of the Confederation of Business and Industry (CBI), will join road safety campaigners and the legal world to raise awareness about road safety among company bosses who employ staff to drive on business.
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In 2013, a total of 515 motorists, passengers and riders died driving on work related business, 111 of them going to and home from work. There were 5,052 serious injuries and 42,035 slight injuries. Road crashes cost an estimated £14.7 billion each year.
Joining the road safety campaign at 10.30am to 1pm today in Telford, Shropshire, are firefighters who will show how they rescue hundreds of people each year by cutting free a business manager from a wrecked car.
Alan Prosser, director of the TTC Group which educates 320,000 road users each year to cut casualties, said they were launching the campaign to show the business world how they can easily adopt measures to minimise the dangers on the road for their staff while cutting costs at the same time.
He praised organisations that had successfully implemented fleet management practices such as a major UK telecoms provider which successfully slashed its monthly injury and damage collision rate by half from 60 per 1,000 vehicles in 2001 to less than 30 per 1,000 in 2014 saving £12m a year by managing workplace road safety.
“Ever year there are more than 500 deaths and thousands of people injured driving at work. Nearly all these casualties are preventable and it’s costing companies millions. The human cost is incalculable,” said Mr Prosser.
Martin-Kaye senior partner Graham Davies said: “I’ll be joining TTC at their road safety campaign event to spell out what an employer’s obligations are, the legal framework that surrounds the issues, and the penalties you’ll face if you flout the rules.”
