MANY crashes that involve work-related driving should not be considered ‘accidents’, a transport safety advisor told the Fleet News Double Jeopardy conference.

Rob Gifford of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) took a break from chairing the event to make his own presentation on managing risk.

He challenged phraseologyterming crashes as ‘accidents’, which suggests they are often random and unavoidable. Instead, he said, regularly there are circumstances involved, particularly with drivers being at fault, that make them anything but accidental.

He said: ‘Many deaths result from somebody doing or not doing something that otherwise might have prevented the incident.’

Gifford urged fleets to place greater emphasis on safety and risk management and focus on drivers’ actions being the main cause.