‘Praise’: Preventing Road Accidents and Injuries for the Safety of Employees

PRAISE (Preventing Road Accidents and Injuries for the Safety of Employees) is a project co-funded by the European Commission and implemented by ETSC. The project aims to advance work-related road safety management and provide know-how for employers who have to take on that challenge. It also aims to present the work-related road safety standards of EU Member States and carry out advocacy work at the EU level: work-related road safety is an area of road safety policy that clearly needs renewed political commitment.

Driving is a demanding task and the risk of crashing is high when individuals are not physically or mentally fit to drive. This is especially true when looking at work related driving, since conditions such as work related stress or sleepiness resulting from driving long hours come to play a role.

This report looks into Fitness to Drive in the work-related context. The first part looks at Workplace Health Promotion (WHP). Improving the health and well-being of employees is of paramount importance for employers and can play a significant role in reducing road risks.

It is thanks to general well being and healthy lifestyles that significant threats to safety risks such as sleepiness, addictions to alcohol or illegal drugs or medicines and stress can be avoided. The report then zooms into three specific areas that pose specific challenges: sleepiness, alcohol, and illegal drugs and medicines.

This report covers existing legislation, examples of initiatives and case studies, and recommendations to the EU, to EU Member States, and to employers.