Road Safety Week special: Police tips on keeping your drivers safe

This is the third and final episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries.

This episode, we're joined by Rik Wenham, an investigator in the Commercial Vehicle Unit of the Metropolitan Police. Rik discusses the important processes of responding to and investigating road traffic accidents, covers how the police work with the parties involved, and shares advice on how best to manage occupational road risk. 

Content warning: This episode contains mentions of mental ill-health, suicidal ideation, and completing suicide. If you’d like to skip over this discussion, please jump from 02.26 to 04.25.

If you’re affected by this and need support, contact Samaritans on 116 123.

Find out more at https://www.rssb.co.uk/managing-occupational-road-risk

Transcript

Host [00.18]: Welcome to the final episode in our Rail Industry Road Safety Week miniseries. As you'll no doubt be aware, road traffic accidents are very common in Great Britain, but they have been declining year over year for the past few decades, with rates continuing to trend down following the COVID-19 pandemic. That's due in part to the continued work of police investigators up and down the country. Their diligence and dedication means being able to spot causal trends over time and put measures in place to mitigate them.

One such investigator is Rik Wenham. He's with the Commercial Vehicle Unit at the Metropolitan Police, and he's with us today to talk about the important processes of responding to and investigating road traffic accidents. We'll also discuss how the police work with the parties involved and some common obstacles they face along the way. And finally, we'll see what advice Rik has on how best to manage occupational road risk.

Hi Rik, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Rik Wenham [01.12]: Hi Jasmin, and thanks for the invite.

Host [01.13]: So first things first, can you tell us about your role? What kind of thing are you doing on a day-to-day basis?

Rik [01.19]: So, I'm the officer in charge of the Met Police's Commercial Vehicle Unit, as you said, and I have responsibility for incidents involving commercial vehicles, including buses and coaches. And that can range from fatal and serious injury collisions, bridge strikes, human trafficking, overweight vehicles. You name it, we'll go to it. Basically, I say if it's heavy and is in, on, or under an HGV, it falls within my remit.

Host [01.43]: And I know every case is unique, but what might a typical police response to a road accident look like?

Rik [01.49]: So, it very much ranges from the type of collision it is. To a bridge strike can be quite a significant one. To a serious injury or fatal collision will be an absolutely huge first response from all of the blue light services. We're talking ambulances, fire and rescue services, specialist rescue units, air ambulances. It depends what the incident itself is.

Initially, it'll be the borough first responders, so your beat officers will be there first, and then it'll be the specialist teams, roads policing teams and the commercial vehicle unit.

If there's a serious injury or a fatality, the road closures will be huge, so it's a real draw on resources, and that can result in dozens of police officers being deployed.

Host [02.26]: Can you walk us through a couple of scenarios where you think someone making a phone call to 999 might have resulted in a different outcome?

Rik [02.34]: Absolutely. One that immediately springs to mind is quite a tragic incident where a male was seen running into traffic, actively trying to be involved in a collision, and he'd been doing this for 45 minutes. He ran into the path of a van, the van driver managed to stop, have an argument with him. Unfortunately, the van driver decided to assault this chap running into the traffic, but for 45 minutes, no one phoned the police or an ambulance service to someone that was clearly vulnerable. Unfortunately, he waited for a 32-tonne tipper to come around a corner and jumped between axles two and three, and he was killed at the scene.

What's really sad and really frustrating about this incident is the chap was wearing a hospital gown, and he was there for 45 minutes and no one phoned the police. That was completely preventable, and going on to really compound the tragedy of that one, he'd actually been sectioned for trying to kill himself by running into traffic and had absconded from a mental health unit less than a quarter of a mile away. That's where a little bit of intervention, rather than a smack on the nose, would have saved the life, quite frankly.

And another one was really recently, very similar scenario. Chap was sitting on the hard shoulder barrier of the M1. Nothing visible, no broken down vehicles. Obviously a pedestrian on the M1 shouldn't have been there, and he ran to the path of a 44-tonne Arctic. God knows how many people would have driven past him, not wanting to get involved. But completely, intervention could have been put there. Fortunately, he wasn't particularly badly injured, and the Arctic driver did a brilliant job of standing his lorry on its nose. But we would have quite happily, as would National Highways, have put some resources onto the motorway to take him off and get him help.

Host [04.07]: And why do you think there's this hesitance around calling 999?

Rik [04.10]: It's a strange one because there's an exemption in law. If there's an emergency and someone's at risk, you can pick your phone up and you can phone 999 if it's safe to do so. So there's an exemption in law for doing that. And I think people just travel on autopilot. They want to get from A to B and just don't want to get involved.

Host [04.25]: And what about the investigation process itself? How do you work with the parties involved, and are there any common obstacles that you find yourself facing?

Rik [04.34]: We're quite versed in our response and our investigation response, and obviously we respond as a Commercial Vehicle Unit, and we'll take ownership of the driver and the vehicle, for want of a better word. Then we've got our serious collision investigation teams that are the detectives, and they'll do their specialism, and then the forensic investigation teams. And they are really the dark art. They can tell if an indicator was flashing even if the light lens has burst because of glass fragments in the filament, and sort of intricate detail like that. 

We don't really have huge obstacles because, as I said, we are quite versed at it, but we work really well as a team with the investigators, but equally, haulage operators, lorry operators, transport managers, and that, we get them on board really, really quickly because they're key. If a driver has tragically been involved in a serious collision or a fatality, I'm very much of the mindset that he's as much of a victim as the person that's injured, and they should be treated as that and given some time to let it all comprehend. I don't want to be speaking to a driver about telematics, maintenance schedules, offloads, and transfer loads, things like that. Really key to us is to engage the transport company early. If it's feasible, we'll get them down to us, come to the scene because it's a friendly face. You might not like your transport manager, but it's not a police officer in uniform sat in a van. It's someone you can understand and relate to. We get them on board really, really quick.

I think the biggest obstacle we do face is when it's non-UK vehicles, non-UK drivers, involved because obviously we can't get a transport manager over from Europe or beyond. So, we have to do a lot on the phone, Google Translate and text messages, and then obviously accommodating drivers if we take the lorry as an exhibit. So that's the real obstacles we do face.

Host [06.13]: And what sort of repercussions might there be for organisations when one of their employees is in a road accident in the line of work?

Rik [06.20]: It really depends on the circumstances on this one. If it's driver error or just a pure accident, then very little repercussion will follow.

Obviously, our investigation is really, really intricate. If we can evidence sort of widespread safety equipment failures, doesn't have to be serious, but if there's like widespread failures, you can end up in front of the traffic commissioner if it's sort of more than just one vehicle. And that's potentially career ending for a transport manager. The HSE, if they become involved, are obviously a Crown agency, don't need warrants, and their fining potential is unlimited.

And if it's negligent practices, so things like sending vehicles out with knowingly defective safety equipment, the HSE will literally have a field day. The traffic commissioner will have a field day, and company directors can find themselves on the wrong side of a manslaughter by gross negligence trial. And I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Host [07.12]: And just following on from that, when an employee who drives for work is involved in an accident, do you ever see any trends in terms of causes?

Rik [07.19]: Again, it's a tricky one because commercial vehicle serious accidents and fatalities are nationally down by over 12%, which is - when you look at it - an absolutely huge figure. Vulnerable road users are our most common call-out, vulnerable road users, commercial vehicles, and it always will be. But we very much deal with every collision as we find it. We don't go pre-judging it just because it's a vulnerable road user and a large vehicle.

I think bridge strikes are the commonest collision that we respond to where there is actually a theme, and that comes down to drivers either not checking the load of their vehicle, the height of their vehicle and adjusting the height plate, or following SatNav. And SatNav apps on the phone are brilliant, and they'll even tell you where the police have got a road check so you can avoid them. But you can avoid us into a low bridge, and that'll find you in front of the traffic commissioner.

And we've actually had one not so long ago where a driver took a massive lump out of the A13 flyover at Wellington, closed the A13 for 2 days and had a toe-to-toe conversation with me and one of my sergeants that it wasn't his responsibility to check it, it's the loader's ability to check it. And his 18-month driving ban sort of confirmed what we said.

Again, it's little things like load security that can be a common theme. It's all well and good sitting in the warm and dry in your cab where you can tip it and then put the sheet back over on the press of the button. But you've still got to get out and check there's nothing on the sheet, the sheet is effective. And little tiny little bits of aggregate falling off can hurt someone if it flies at them at motorway speeds.

Host [08.46]: And finally, what advice would you give to listeners in rail who drive for work? And also, is there anything you'd say to line managers who have teams driving for work?

Rik [08.54]: So for drivers, I would say take the best practice out of HGV drivers, mandatory walk-around check. It doesn't matter what you drive, even if it's your personal car, do a walk-around check. Just make sure it's roadworthy. That's what I would implore drivers to do with any vehicles.

And for managers, I'd say just support your drivers. Make sure they've got relevant training on the vehicles. It's pointless taking someone out of a DAF and putting them into a Volvo if they don't know where the switch gear is. Other trucks are available, obviously, but the switch gear is different in all vehicles. So, give drivers a chance to familiarise themselves, time to do their walk-around checks.

And when it comes to CPC and CPD training, make it relevant and make it interesting. Don't look at the cheapest option because it gets you 7 hours clicked off on your CPC training because it could be absolutely dull as dishwater and not relevant to what you're doing.

Host [09.42]: Rik, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for listening! 

If you want to learn more about the work RSSB does to help industry manage occupational road risk, please visit our website. 

We look forward to you joining us for the next episode. And in the meantime, save travels!