How did the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 affect fleet managers?
Under health and safety at work legislation, companies have always owed a duty of care to their employees – including those driving as part of their job and, as a result, other road users. Therefore, at face value, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act did not introduce any new legislation that responsible companies and fleet decision-makers should not already have been aware of. What the legislation did do when it was introduced in April 2008 was to focus the minds of fleet chiefs and raise awareness in public and private sector organisations of the importance of checking that all reasonable health and safety policies and procedures were in place to safeguard drivers and all other road users. The Act made clear, just as existing health and safety legislation does, that organisations should have in place audit trails relating to drivers, vehicles and journeys. Therefore, in the event of a fatal road crash, companies and public sector fleets can prove they had taken all
