Their accident, your responsibility

In the past, if your employee caused death or injury whilst driving on company business they could be personally prosecuted. Today, if an employer hasn’t taken adequate ‘duty of care’, the individual ultimately responsible, usually a director, or line manager, can also be prosecuted and imprisoned for manslaughter.

Your drivers may be hundreds of miles away, but the duty of care remains with you.

If an employee has an accident whilst driving on behalf of your business, both you and your business could be at risk.

Recent changes in legislation will have a huge impact upon all employers who operate any type of road vehicle in connection with their business. This includes employees who use their own vehicles, and applies to all work related journeys.

The new legislation is called The Corporate Manslaughter Act, and it will make it possible for a business organisation to be prosecuted rather than just individuals within the business. It is likely to be used to prosecute organisations whose negligence or illegal acts result in fatal road traffic incidents. This will generally involve breaches of Health and Safety and Road Traffic Laws.

The consequences for employers could be devastating, and may include:

1. Criminal charges being levelled, at both the organisation and its Directors or Managers, resulting in unlimited fines or imprisonment.
2. Civil proceedings for compensation being taken by employees and anyone else who has suffered loss or damage.

If one of your drivers was involved in a serious accident - could you prove to the police (with evidence) that you have fully met your duty of care. e.g have you conducted comprehensive risk assessments and recorded your findings in writing?

What should you do?

You can’t pretend that it will go away, it won’t. The law applies to all businesses - regardless of size

Therefore you should ...

Contact ALM ManORR to discuss how we can bring you peace of mind through a cost effective solution.