Nigel Grainger brings together a related set of skills that all fleets require, to greater or lesser
degrees, but which may not have the staffing or the skills to fulfil those needs.
Bringing his wealth of experience in all areas of fleet management he offers a bespoke service through his company Fleet Risk Consultants, providing you with a cost effective fleet that complies fully with your 'duty of care' requirements.The Corporate Manslaughter Act and the Police
The Corporate Manslaughter Act will not change the way that the Police investigate fatal and serious Road Accidents, but it will give them an additional route to prosecution where a controlling mind cannot be readily identified.
The Police treat all serious collisions, those involving death or life changing injuries, as crime scenes. They operate in line with a document titled ‘Road Death Investigation Manual’ and it lays out how deaths on the road should be investigated and reported. By treating the accident scene as a crime scene they are already assuming that a crime has been committed, therefore they are looking for someone to prosecute. That someone could be you or your company.
They will seal the scene and have the collision investigators examine the area minutely for evidence. You should be aware that the Police may seize mobile telephones, data recorders, tachographs, engine management chips, telematics systems, laptop computers and the vehicles themselves and hold them until after any prosecution and appeal period, at which time they will be returned. In my experience this can be anything up to and occasionally beyond twelve months, dependent on the circumstances of the incident. The Police could come and seize all your office computers, laptops, sales management data, work schedules, accounts, vehicle documents, procedural documents, policies and seal off your office for as long as it takes to conduct their enquires, this will include interviews with any relevant employees under caution. Most of your employees are unlikely to have been cautioned before and a good proportion of your staff may have never had any interaction with the Police in their life. As such, an interview under caution could be a really upsetting experience for them on top of the trauma of having a colleague or employee killed or seriously injured. These interviews will be used in court as evidence against individuals and the organisation.
You will be interested to note that a section of the Road Death Manual covers Corporate Liability and states that consideration should be given to whether working regimes, working practices or negligence of a corporate body led to the death of the person involved in a traffic incident. This looks at duty of care and is aimed at establishing whether a body failed in its duty of care to the public and specifically the deceased.
So the question you need to ask yourself is ‘Have I given due consideration to the most dangerous part of my business?’ You might also need decide whether have the necessary skills to carry out the assessments into the risks of using vehicles for business.
Nigel Grainger
Senior Consultant