Crash deaths prompt staff driving course push

Bosses are being encouraged to sign up their employees for driving training after roads death in Essex came close to reaching a 10-year high.

Fifty-eight people died and 936 were seriously injured in crashes on the county's roads during 2025 - the highest number since 2016, when 64 died.

Safer Essex Roads Partnership (Serp), made up of organisations including councils, emergency services and National Highways, said local data now showed a third of serious crashes involved at least one person driving for work at the time.

As a result, it wants employers to take up the offer of getting involved in the Driving for Better Business Essex programme, which has been relaunched.

It said although the Essex programme had been running since September 2024, it was being freshly promoted to help "tackle work-related road risk in the county".

Training was specially tailored to each organisation's needs and offered a mix of classroom and practical learning, led by experienced fleet drivers, the partnership said.

It highlighted how employers were legally responsible for managing the safety of staff who drive for work, whether using company cars, commercial vehicles, or their own car for the occasional journey.

Serp said the project could help businesses to improve employees' safe driving, ensure they meet all health and safety laws, and ultimately uphold reputations.

Fees are charged for most of the training, but Serp said as a non-profit organisation, it aimed to keep them low.

In March, Essex County Council said speed was a factor in nearly half of crashes and unveiled a plan to introduce recommended speed limits, based on street use.

Residents were asked to give feedback on a consultation document it drafted with Serp, with speed limits decided on a case-by-case basis – aimed at helping achieve the partnership's goal that nobody should be killed or seriously injured on the county's roads by 2040.

The peak in the number of road deaths was announced by Essex Police in January, with the force also describing the rising number of drug-driving cases as an "epidemic".

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