Careless company drivers at fault for 40% of accidents

Van-accident-fleet-news

FAULT: Company drivers often to blame

Careless company drivers were responsible for 40% of all accidents involving a fleet vehicle last year, new figures have shown.

Statistics reveal company drivers were at fault for more than 18,000 of 43,293 accidents suffered by Lex Autolease’s 120,000-strong fleet.

The figures mean Lex Autolease customers paid out more than £18.6million in repair costs, third party liabilities and replacement vehicles last year – an average of £1,033 per vehicle.

Richard Harper, Head of Accident Services at Lex Autolease, said: “Although the average cost of each accident is just over £1,000, the true cost to businesses is significantly higher.

“Following an accident a company vehicle can be off the road for more than a week, causing immeasurable disruption and inconvenience.

“The fact that company drivers were responsible for 40% of accidents last year suggests that businesses need to do more to raise standards and eradicate poor driving behaviour.

“The need to address this problem is more acute at this time of year following the end of British Summer Time.

“The starting point for businesses is to understand why accidents occur.

“Once they have this information they can take steps to reduce collisions such as driver training programmes, assessing time and work pressures on their drivers and eliminating unnecessary journeys.”

Almost one in five accidents were caused by colliding with an immobile object, with 22% of incidents the result of hitting a third party vehicle.

Despite the high frequency of accidents, just 2% involved collisions with pedestrians, cyclists or animals.

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