RAC Duty of Care

A firm faced a £9 million damages bill after one of its drivers ran over a cyclist while using a Mobile Phone.

The cyclist was left paralysed from the neck down and on a life support machine.

The £9 million payout is thought to be the highest awarded to a British citizen by an English court.

Personal injury claims are rising by 10% year on year, leaving insurance companies with no option other than to dramatically raise premiums.

An employee was recently flung from his van after momentarily falling asleep at the wheel. The employee was paralysed and will not walk again for the rest of his life. He can now sue his employers for damages expected to exceed £1 million.

His final reward award will be reduced by 33% because of his own contributory negligence in not wearing a seatbelt, and knowing he was at risk of falling asleep after working for 19 hours without a break.

The Court of Appeal decided that he was “in that predicament because his employers had put him there”.

A spokesman for the Fleet Safety Association said that although the driver himself made no attempt whatsoever to manage the risk he was exposing himself to, it appears that the employer encouraged a risk-taking approach to driving. A statement from the driver’s manager stating that “eating is cheating and you can sleep when you are dead” supported this.

An employee driving his own vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian on a pelican crossing after falling asleep at the wheel. Although driving on company business the employee has failed to take out the necessary business insurance cover and the employer had no procedures to check this. The employers were also accused of asking the employees to operate longer hours in an effort to increase business.

The employee was jailed for 3 years and banned from driving for 10 years.

The verdict on the directors and management involved is still awaited.

An employee using a non-hands-free phone whilst driving on company business lost control of his vehicle and collided with another vehicle, resulting in the death of the other driver.

The employee was sentenced to 3 years in prison and banned from driving for 4 years.

The employers were cleared of all blame when it was shown that all their procedures and policies were in line with the legislation, and that specific instructions had been issued to all employees regarding the use of mobile phones whilst driving.

In other words the employers complied with their Duty of Care responsibilities correctly, but the employee chose non-compliance.

An organisation was found guilty of failing to properly monitor working hours when an employee driving home in his own car was involved in an accident resulting in the death of the employee. The court heard that the employee, after working 76 hours in four days, fell asleep at the wheel when driving home.

The company was fined £30,000 plus £24,000 costs for failing to keep proper records to monitor employee hours.

This employee was not required to drive on company business but the case serves to warn others that failing to monitor working hours will not be tolerated.

New penalties for speeding have been introduced and are now being applied by the police. Recent statistics show that, of all fines issued for Motoring Offences, 41% are for speeding. The new limits and penalties are as follows:

Limit	Six Points and £100 fine
20 mph	32 mph and over
30 mph	45 mph and over
40 mph	57 mph and over
50 mph	70 mph and over
60 mph	82 mph and over
70 mph	94 mph and over

The current 3 points and the £60 penalty will still apply to speeds between the official limit and the new upper bands. It is also suggested that ‘minor’ speeding offences such as up to 35mph in a 30mph limit may attract only 2 points, but this is yet to be clarified.

You will note that it will not take long for any of your drivers who are prone to speeding to be in a situation whereby they reach 12 points after only two incidents, and are subsequently disqualified from driving. dutyofcare.com will install a procedure that warns you of any employees carrying over 6 points on their licence. This will act as an early warning system to alert you of a possible problem in the future.

Other increases in fines and penalty points will apply to Use of Non-Hands-Free Mobiles, Careless Driving, Drink Driving Offences and Children not Wearing Seat Belts.

You may well discover that you have employees from other countries driving on EU licences. dutyofcare.com will check on your behalf with the DVLA as to the validity of these. Try to encourage such employees to apply for a UK driving licence where possible.

dutyofcare.com will, on your behalf, apply effective driving licence management.

The penalty point system is intended to deter drivers from following unsafe driving practices. The courts MUST order points to be endorsed on the driving licence according to the fixed number or the range set by Parliament. The accumulation of penalty points acts as a warning to drivers that they risk disqualification if further offences are committed. A driver who accumulates 12 or more penalty points within a three-year period must be disqualified. This will be for a minimum period of six months, or longer if the driver has previously been disqualified.

For every offence which carries penalty points the court has a discretionary power to order the licence holder to be disqualified. This may be for any period the court thinks fit, but will usually be between a week and a few months.

In the case of serious offences, such as dangerous driving and drink driving, the court MUST order disqualification. The minimum period is 12 months, but for repeat offenders, or where the alcohol level is high, it may be longer. For example, a second drink-drive offence in the space of 10 years will result in a minimum of three years disqualification.

Furthermore, in some serious cases, the court MUST (in addition to imposing a fixed period of disqualification) order the offender to be disqualified until they pass another driving test. In other cases the court has a discretionary power to order such disqualification. The test may be an ordinary length test, or an extended test, according to the nature of the offence.

Special rules apply to new drivers within two years of the date of passing their driving test if they passed the test after 1 June 1997 and held nothing but a provisional (learner) licence before passing the test. If the number of penalty points on their licence reaches six or more as a result of offences they commit before the two years are over (including any they committed before they passed the test), their licence will be revoked. They must then reapply for a provisional licence and may drive only as learners until they pass another theory and practical driving test.

Where an offence is punishable by imprisonment then the vehicle used to commit the offence may be confiscated.

In addition to the penalties a court may decide to impose, the cost of insurance is likely to rise considerably following conviction for a serious driving offence. This is because insurance companies consider such drivers are more likely to have an accident.

Drivers disqualified for drinking and driving twice within 10 years (or once if they are over two and a half times the legal limit), or those who refused to give a specimen, also have to satisfy the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's Medical Branch that they do not have an alcohol problem and are otherwise fit to drive before their licence is returned at the end of their period of disqualification.

Persistent misuse of drugs or alcohol may lead to the complete withdrawal of a driving licence.