Hi All
Interesting so far! With comments reflecting risk and philosophical considerations.
Document which Chris refers (which identifies plant operators as being Safety Critical Workers) needs to be read in the context of
http://www.cbhscheme.com/Documents/CBH-Standards-Issue-2---Read-Only
....which is quite difficult to find unless you are good with your Boolean searches rather than being an easily found download.
This "Industry Standards for Workplace Health in UK Construction" (at page 47) adds LGV and HGV drivers to Plant Operators in its list of Safety Critical Workers. By inference it means LGV and HGV drivers within the construction supply chain
The implication is that CBH do not consider other users of the public highway during the course of their employment in the construction industry to be Safety Critical.
Potential outcome of a multiple pile up on the motorway are obvious but Department for Transport statistics demonstrate that M-Ways are comparatively safe environments.
2016 stats for Great Britain (all assuming the absence of any temporary speed restrictions, and underreporting especially of the least serious injuries)
Built up roads defined as speed limit of 40 mph or less - 44% of the fatalities, 66% of serious injuries, 73% of slight injuries.
Non-built up roads defined as speed limit of more than 40 mph - 51% of fatals, 30% serious injuries, 22% slight injuries.
M-Ways - 5, 3 and 5%.
All reported injuries - Built up 72%, Non-built up 24%, M-Ways 5%
In addition, as soon as the speed limit goes up then the volume of particularly vulnerable users (including, inter alia, pedestrians, cyclists but perhaps not motorcyclists) goes down.
Casualty and fatality rates for passengers (including drivers) per billion miles:
Pedestrian 1863 / 35.4
Cyclist 5353 / 29.5
Motorcyclist 6321 / 104.5
Car 262 / 2.0
Bus (or coach) 173 / 0.4
LGV 68 / 0.8
HGV 66 /0.6
Those vocational drivers with the lowest accident rates are already subject to additional requirements!!
So is it appropriate to consider all those others driving at work to be Safety Critical, and if applying CBH guidance, to introduce fitness checks, drug and alcohol testing etc?
If so, do we have enough Occupational Health resources to deliver and at what cost? Reasonably practicable?
Should other variables be considered? Age, past record, volume of driving by hours or distance etc etc?