COMPANY car drivers could see speed limiters fitted to their vehicles in plans to cut the number of road deaths and improve highway safety in Wales.

The National Assembly of Wales has published a consultation paper which includes specific policy proposals for drivers of company vehicles.

The draft document suggests investigation of road crashes involving company vehicles, banning the drinking of alcohol during the working day and adopting maintenance policies and standards.

The consultation document, called Safe Roads, Safe Communities, will form the basis of the Assembly's new road safety programme and lists company car drivers alongside younger drivers and older motorcyclists as road users who should be targeted with education and training.

Welsh environment minister Sue Essex launched the consultation document last Wednesday.

She said: 'According to a study by the Transport Research Laboratory, company car drivers have been shown to be statistically 30 - 50% more likely to crash than comparable private drivers.

'Speed limiters are only one of a number of possible options mentioned within the consultation document as a way of increasing road safety. The idea is also discussed in the UK-wide Road Safety Strategy document but only as a long-term plan.'

The consultation paper also says local re-enforcement of road safety issues can best be implemented 'where drivers belong to organisations which can adopt and enforce road safety policies. The most obvious of these is the workplace, especially where driving is part of the job'.

If the measures are successfully introduced, it could lead to an increase in the workload of fleet managers to ensure the rules are enforced, and the chance that similar schemes could be adopted elsewhere in the UK. Other proposed measures include traffic calming, residential 20mph zones, pre-driving test training courses for teenagers and high-visibility policing.

It falls in line with the Government's policy of a 40% reduction in the number of people seriously injured or killed on the roads.