Data
It is also a priority to push for Department for Transport to collect data on the number of specific casualties involving recovery workers.
Sam Cockerill, who launched the campaign following her partner’s death, only learned about other cases through word-of-mouth and anecdotal evidence. She came to see that everyone in the industry seemed to have numerous stories of how this issue has affected their businesses, families and communities.
At present, the DfT publish detailed road safety data about the circumstances of personal injury road accidents that have been reported by the Police through the Stats19 form. Whilst the data available allows detailed assessment on the general characteristics of those involved in accidents, there is not a specific variable which captures the number of deaths or injuries of roadside recovery operatives in accidents.
2004 Guidance from the Health and Safety Executive(HSE) estimated there are approx. 6-8 fatalities every year. These figures comport with anecdotal evidence and feeling within the industry. But without recent, concrete data we cannot accurately get a grip of the scale and scope of the problem, and therefore won’t be able to begin to tackle the problem.