The control strategies for managing the risk inherent in vehicle operations are based on the usual basic health and safety management principles:
- Eliminate the hazard.
- Create a safe place.
- Create a safe person.
The starting point is a risk assessment.
Risk Assessment
A risk assessment covering the vehicle operations in a workplace would
- Identify the various hazards, by establishing the vehicle operations taking place in or from the workplace and the types of foreseeable accident that might occur.
- Identify the groups at risk (pedestrians, the driver, other drivers, etc.) and those who might be especially vulnerable (young children, the elderly, people with certain disabilities such as the visually impaired, etc.).
- Evaluate the risk by considering the existing controls, the adequacy of those controls and any further controls required to reduce the risks to an acceptable level.
- Be recorded and implemented.
- Be subject to review as the workplace changes, in response to incidents, and perhaps periodically.
The measures necessary to control the risks created by vehicle operations can be grouped into three main categories:
- Safe site (the workplace environment).
- Safe vehicles.
- Safe drivers.