Contractors are being urged to pool data on road accidents and near misses involving construction vehicles in a new online database as part of a three-pronged campaign to eliminate cyclist and pedestrian fatalities involving construction vehicles.
The new database is part of the CLOCS Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety campaign, which is being ramped up with the launch of a new website – www.clocs.org.uk.
CLOCS is also working with manufacturers and legislators to create a safer generation of construction vehicles. The specially-designed Laing O’Rourke prototype tipper shown above is designed with its cab closer to the road reduce the driver’s blindspot.
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The third aim is to rally the industry’s contractors, clients and subcontractors behind a challenging new safety standard for construction vehicles.
CLOCS was initiated last year by Transport for London after it became clear that construction vehicles were involved in a disproportionately high number of fatal accidents involving cyclists in the capital.
But it has also drawn in 60 organisations from the construction, development and road transport sectors, including Crossrail, Mace, Lend Lease, housebuilder St George and logistics specialist Wilson James, and is now viewed as an industry-owned project. The three CLOCS workstreams are being coordinated by Aecom, after TfL tendered the role last year.
A Wilson James truck equipped with improved mirrors, side and rear cameras – with the display in the drivers cab – to reduce the driver’s blindspots
John Hix, the CLOCs programme director at Aecom, told CM that the forthcoming “CLOCS Repository” online database would break new ground for an industry that is only just getting to grips with safety risks outside the site boundary. CLOCS had to build the system from scratch after finding that there were no suitable templates in use within the industry.
“It’s putting work-related road risk at the heart of the industry’s safety culture and making it transparent. Contractors will be able to log in and log incidents and near misses to build up data. We will have an alert system to put out relevant information or news,” said Hix.
The CLOCS project also aims to embed a new safety standard published last December across the sector. The Standard for Construction Logistics:Managing Work-related Road Risk draws on several existing standards, including Crossrail’s pioneering contractually-driven requirements.
Its requirements cover issues such as traffic routing, accident reporting and driver training. On the key issue of vehicle blind spots, it requires that fleet operators “ensure all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight have front, side and rear blind-spots completely eliminated or minimised as far as is practical”.
Organisations that sign up to become CLOCS champions will work to promote and enforce the standard across their supply chains and sectors.
Hix also said CLOCS was collaborating with fleet operators and manufacturers to evaluate safety systems. “There’s a lot on the market to help reduce vehicle blind spots, and TFL has commissioned further research on their efficacy and will report fairly soon.”
He said that CLOCS is also working to influence EU regulations that stipulate vehicle weights and dimensions, “to make sure there is a package that helps vehicle designers”.
CLOCS will be hosting an invitation-only summit on 10 July at London’s Guildhall for key stakeholders involved in the project.
