Estimated by the UK Government, since 2018, the number of accidents involving working drivers has stayed around 25%. However, detailed information retrieval has been historically poor and has improved little.
The Statistics
In 2018, 73% of vehicles involved in accidents were recorded as having an “unknown purpose” at the time the incident occurred.
For 2024, the percentile is still at 57%, despite a new category being added to identify if a vehicle was being used for “personal, business or leisure”, which means the majority of records still lack any meaningful journey purpose information.
Insurers consider this total to be closer to a third, which is likely more accurate, as they are dealing with the claims, so they know whether the vehicle was being used for business. Insurers provide information based on their received information within claims and tell us that accident rates are higher for business-rated drivers than for private motorists and estimate that nearly 500 workers are dying per year, whilst driving for work.
Regardless of which way it is interpreted, this makes driving the biggest single work-related activity connected to work-related death, which is not reportable under RIDDOR, and therefore, not included in any HSE-provided work-related death/injury statistics. Also, the following assumptions and reclassification were made:
- Vehicle type assumptions: HGVs, buses, agricultural vehicles, and trams were assumed to always be used for work, regardless of their recorded journey purpose.
- Journey purpose reclassification: Taxis and vans coded as “commuting” were reclassified as “working,” based on the nature of their use (for example, tradespeople and taxi drivers typically do not commute in the conventional sense).
The Police conduct all legally required investigations of these matters, although insurers, and it is highly recommended, all employers, may conduct their own internal investigations and should do so with alacrity. To shine a light on this, the latest confirmed 2024 government figures show:
- 22,770 reported road collisions involving at least 1 driver or rider driving for work.
- 459 fatalities accounted for, 6,220 serious injuries and 24,254 slight injuries.
- 1,642 drivers or riders were killed or seriously injured during work.
- Other road users (non-working) harmed during all of the above totalled 4,759. 388 fatally, 4,371 seriously injured, with 14,002 slightly injured.
There were 1,173 pedestrians hit by working drivers. 119 were fatalities, with 1,054 seriously injured.
So, what has this told us?
Given that these figures are likely to be underestimated due to the way that the information is recorded and then gathered, they do shed light on the number of incidents involving working drivers. Whilst a degree of caution is due as per the limitations of the data gathering and retrieval and assumptions taken regarding unknown journeys and the reclassification of vehicle use, it is still likely that these numbers are lower than reality.
And if we add the number of these driver/workers fatally injured to the annual fatality statistics from HSE, which in 2024 were 124, this would give a larger number of 195 worker fatalities for 2024.
And to make this number worse, the number of people fatally injured whilst affected by activities associated with driving duties, be they a worker on site, another non-working driver or a pedestrian, then the number is:
- 124 HSE figure, fatalities at work in 2024.
- 71 workers were fatally injured whilst driving, or as a passenger.
- 388 non-working fatalities involving a vehicle driven by a worker.
- 119 pedestrian fatalities.
This gives a figure of 702 fatalities associated with driving for work in 2024.