Road Safety Week

Brake, the road safety charity founded Road Safety Week in 1997. It’s an annual event to raise awareness about the importance of road safety and to promote steps that every driver can take to stop the injuries and deaths which happen on our roads every single day.

At Mane, we understand that our contractors are constantly driving from one site to the next, and then onwards to home. Sometimes it is driving from one job to the next for a prolonged period of time. Our contractors who work on Rail, Construction, Engineering, Energy and more are often travelling on the roads in day or night either for the role they are working on, or to get to the next one. From factories to wind farms to rail depots and building sites – they cover them all.

However you get from one site to another, we’d just like to highlight how important it is to be fit enough to drive.

Fatigue is a major contributory factor for crashes in the UK. The main contributor to driver fatigue is those with lack of sleep which can affect the driver in many ways, from having a slower reaction time to decreased awareness. Fatigue can be hard to spot and many drivers drive every day when really, they would not be deemed fit enough to drive.

Peak times for fatigue-related crashes are within the hours of 2-6am and 2-4pm when drivers are more naturally sleepy. About 40% of fatigue-related crashes involve commercial vehicle drivers, often in large vehicles like lorries that cause the most harm.

Research has suggested that driving tired can almost be as dangerous as drink driving, but as fatigue is something that police can’t test, people do not realise how dangerous it can be or the risk they are taking whilst doing long journeys in the car.

However, there are ways to reduce the risks of driving whilst feeling fatigued. Drivers are advised to include rest breaks of at least fifteen minutes every two hours of driving. What some drivers do not realise is, having a fifteen-minute nap will be more effective than getting out of the vehicle and walking around. Drinking a caffeinated drink such as a coffee or an energy drink is effective, but a short-term solution to tiredness.

The message we're trying to get across is that when driving to and from sites, it is extremely important to take the appropriate breaks while driving. If you do feel too tired to drive, take a quick rest. Your safety and other drivers’ safety is more important than arriving an extra fifteen minutes early to a shift or arriving home late.

Stay safe.