HGVs are disproportionately involved in collisions with Vulnerable Road Users. In 2015, HGVs comprised only 4% of urban traffic miles in London but were involved with 20% of pedestrian fatalities and 78% of cyclist fatalities.
Over 5,500 pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists were injured in a collision with construction vehicles on Britain’s roads in 2018 with more than 28,000 people killed or injured over a 5 year period*.
- Of the 5,517 incidents, some were only an inch away from a very different outcome. Sadly, 1,884 of those people were Killed or Seriously Injured (KSIs). That’s 8 casualties every working day with life-changing injuries.
- 44% of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) killed or injured were pedestrians, 28% motorcyclists and 28% pedal cyclists.
- Driver observation errors (misjudging speed, not looking properly) remain the commonest contributory factor. However, VRU behaviour remains similarly prevalent.
Contrast that with construction sites where sustained corporate and regulator effort has seen fatalities and reportable injuries on construction sites fall significantly from 154 in 1990, to 45 in 2022, demonstrating collaborative industry action delivers results.
Health and safety law requires that employers manage risks to employees, sub-contractors and the community in which they operate.
Your legal responsibility
Under Regulations 4 and 13 of the 2015 CDM regulations, clients and principal contractors have a duty to ensure that the construction work they procure is carried out, so far as is reasonably practicable, without risk to the health or safety of any person affected by the project including the wider community and all vulnerable road users.
Every number is a real person with real injuries – traumatising the casualty, their family, the driver, and witnesses. It will cost time, effort and no doubt some financial investment to reduce work related road risks – but how much could it cost if you don’t?
In 2014 my life changed forever when I was hit by a tipper truck whilst cycling in London. I lost my leg in the collision and have had over 12 operations and months of physiotherapy. I urge all construction companies to join up to CLOCS and take on board some simple, effective methods to make their construction activities safer. If signing up means saving someone the pain I went through, then it is absolutely worth it.
— Victoria Lebrec, RoadPeace spokesperson and casualty of a construction lorry crash
* Annual GB Road Safety Statistics published by DfT (latest 2018). Construction has identified and used its most common vehicle body types to enable a refined filter of wider HGV (over 3.5t) and LGV (3.5t or under) data.
