Road accidents: the number one cause of death at work
On average, each year in France, 20,000 work accidents are road accidents. Road traffic therefore remains the main cause of death at work, accounting for around 20% of fatal accidents.
Yes, the situation is appalling: 1 out of 5 fatal workplace accidents happen on the road!
Another alarming and significant figure for businesses: road accidents at work represent 5 million lost working days.
Faced with this sad reality, business leaders are called upon to contribute to the prevention of road risks.
Indeed, according to the Labor Code, the company manager has the obligation to assess all the risks faced by employees and to implement preventive measures.
The prevention of road risks is an obligation for the company manager:
When a company manager provides an employee with a vehicle for the execution of his employment contract, he has a duty of care towards this employee. They should take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of their employees.
If the absence of preventive measures in road travel leads to a traffic accident at work, the employer may be liable. This may include criminal prosecutions.
Criminal proceedings may be initiated against the employer for manslaughter or involuntary injuries (articles 121-3, 221-6, 222-19, R.625-2, R. 622-1 of the Criminal Code). If, through his negligence, he created or allowed to create a dangerous situation that made the accident possible.
Despite these potentially serious consequences, business leaders often find themselves powerless in the face of road risk. How can they get a clear picture of each employee's driving behavior?
Embedded telematics provides a clear answer to this difficult question.
Thanks to a GPS unit installed in each vehicle, it is possible to collect a significant amount of information in real time, not only about the vehicle, of course, but also about the driver (identity of the person behind the wheel, driving behavior, etc.). In terms of driving behavior, embedded telematics makes it possible to continuously analyze three fundamental indicators illustrating the type of driving of each person:
- Brakes
- In the bends
- Acceleration.
The collection, processing and analysis of this data makes it possible to define the profile of each driver in order to identify behaviors prone to accidents.
At Optimum Automotive, the European specialist in connected vehicles, the driver profile is presented in the form of a ranking called the “Eco-Index”.
Each driver initially receives a score of 100, which then progressively degrades based on the driving events mentioned above. The company manager thus has a dashboard on which he can visualize the road behavior of his employees and very quickly identify risky behaviors for which preventive action should be considered. It should also be noted that the Optimum Automotive platform, in addition to the Eco-Index rating, provides an estimate of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption. In addition to the accident rate, the behavior of drivers on the road has a significant impact on these two indicators.
Training and consolidation are the other two pillars of road risk prevention.
Once the behavior at risk of an accident has been identified, the company manager is required to “implement appropriate preventive measures”. Driver awareness and training are effective measures to reduce the number of accidents in the workplace.
Training can take different forms: practical in-circuit courses with an approved trainer or online courses.
Optimum, for example, has partnered with Code Rousseau to optimize drivers' road behavior. The EASY COACH online learning platform is composed of 7 test modules, each comprising 20 multiple choice questions. The program includes 30 multimedia courses on 10 topics; it covers driving rules, driving behavior, and road risk prevention. Each module is marked and corrected as it progresses.
But training is not enough. As the saying goes, “You can't change people's behavior overnight.” So how do you avoid the return of bad habits?
You need to consolidate what you have learned! To ensure that the lessons learned during the training are not forgotten over time, it is essential to maintain awareness in the medium and long term. The Optimum platform allows you to create and launch challenges based on various criteria (Eco-Index score, CO2 emissions, fuel savings, etc.). These challenges promote emulation and contribute to maintaining the benefits of training over time.
In conclusion, road risk is not inevitable. Embedded telematics offers a concrete solution to prevent road risks. They also allow business leaders to demonstrate their efforts to assess and reduce the risks to which their employees are exposed.
