FLEETS have a major role to play in helping achieve the Government's objective of a 40% cut in serious injuries and deaths on the roads within 10 years. Transport Minister Lord Whitty told delegates at an At-Work Road Safety Conference that people 'at work' were involved in at least one quarter of road accidents, according to the early findings of the Work Related Road Safety Task Group.

Whitty said: 'Work-related accidents are a key factor in the prime objective of our strategy, which is reducing deaths and serious injury by 40%. 'There has been some involvement by 'at work' drivers in more than a quarter of all road deaths and this is a wide-ranging problem. If we can find ways of reducing these accidents and changing the regimes which operate when driving a car then we would have made a major contribution to achieving this road safety strategy.'

Whitty also gave details on how the Government plans to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink-driving. 'Speed is the biggest single cause of accidents. We have given local authorities more power to impose speed limits. But it's important that the speed limits are right. The new system is for local authorities to ensure speed limits are set correctly by the local authorities. There will be more use of 20mph limits in urban areas and 30mph limits on some country lanes.'