The safety, health, and wellbeing of all personnel is a key priority for Fire and Emergency.  

In some roles, you may be required to drive a vehicle. Should this be the case it’s key that everyone remains safe and well every time they undertake work for Fire and Emergency.  

This article shares key information on how to keep yourself safe when driving at work and what the Safe@Work data tell us about driving related incidents. We understand that when responding to an emergency it may not make it practical to follow all these tips. Please always apply safe person concept and dynamic risk assessment.  

Thank you to all our personnel who have, and continue to, report events in Safe@Work.  

Safety advice when driving: 

  • Be aware of your surroundings and drive to the conditions.  
  • Plan ahead – check the weather for the area you are travelling to and if adverse conditions are forecasted, consider delaying the trip or taking another route.  
  • Always wear a seatbelt, including in the back seats. 
  • Avoid driving when fatigued, get someone else to drive or delay the trip (where possible).  
  • Follow the road code and posted speed limits as a maximum. For vehicles not responding to an incident the speed limit is the maximum legal speed that you can travel at on a road in  optimal conditions. 
  • When reversing ask someone to help you (spotter), or should you be alone, check the area behind your vehicle before reversing especially if it is dark or visibility is low.   
  • When driving alone, consider liasing with the Communications Centre or your manager for checkins to ensure you arrive safely.  
  • Hold a current driver’s licence with the correct licence class for the vehicle you are driving. 
  • Carry out the required training for the vehicle type.  
  • Drive within the vehicle’s capabilities, have an induction/handover for a new vehicle. 
  • Carry out regular checks on the vehicle to ensure it is safe to drive and report any issues/arrange for repair as soon as possible.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Fatigue as a factor in safe driving 

Fatigue is a state of physical and mental exhaustion which results in the loss of alertness. This loss of alertness is accompanied by poor judgement, slower reaction time, and impaired co-ordination and decision making. 

Those involved in working extended hours or some form of shift work, are six times more likely to be involved in a car crash than other workers (source: NZTA/Driving Safely/Shift work(external link)).  

Consider if you really need to make a trip in the middle of the night, e.g. to deliver equipment, or can it wait until morning when conditions are safer, you are rested and the risk of an incident is reduced.                                   

What the statistics say about driving in NZ 

  • Between July 2022 and June 2023, there were 30 fatalities caused by work-related vehicle incidents, and between June 2022 and May 2023 there were 1014 injuries resulting in more than one week away from work due to work-related vehicle incidents.  
  • In 2022, fatigue was a factor in 23 fatal crashes and 80 serious injury crashes.  
  • Between 2002 and 2021, traffic accidents (including farm vehicles) were the most common causes of workplace fatalities.  

This information has been sourced from NZTA/Waka Kotahi and WorkSafe NZ. 

What our Safe@Work data tells us 

Most events reported in Safe@Work were near misses. A number resulted in an injury, with one resulting in serious injuries and several months off work to recover. Many near miss events reported had the potential to have been more serious in slightly different circumstances.  

544 events related to driving were reported in Safe@Work between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2024. There were some clear themes about activities happening at the time of the events, and these have been summarised below: 

  • Impacting an object. For example, hitting a gate, backing into a fence, colliding with another vehicle, or hitting the appliance bay door. 
  • Unsafe behaviour of other road users i.e. – other motorists, cyclists, scooters, pedestrians.  
  • The environment and road conditions including loss of traction, narrow driveways, and narrow roads, as well as near misses involving animals like deer, cattle and dogs.   
  • Weather conditions such as thick fog, sunstrike, heavy rain, and high winds.  
  • Items not being stowed or secured correctly and falling into the roadway.

Please log any safety, health, and wellbeing events through  Safe@Work(external link).

If you need help to log an event, please refer to the Report workplace safety, health or wellbeing event page(external link), or contact your Regional Safety, Health and Wellbeing Advisor(external link).

 

Policy, Training, and Education Tools 

  

Last modified: