Workers Put at Risk by Dangerous Driving

The lives of refuse workers are regularly being placed at risk by reckless drivers, according to the GMB union. 

The union, which represents refuse workers, has called for a crackdown on the hundreds of thousands of incidents of dangerous driving every year, which is putting the lives of refuse workers and others with jobs on the public highway at risk. 

New figures, released by refuse company Biffa, show workers report a massive 1,000 incidents of dangerous or reckless driving every day - a total of 360,000 every year.

Video footage released by Biffa shows reckless drivers mounting pavements, curbs and grass verges to get round bin lorries making rubbish collections. Refuse workers are forced to dive for cover as motorists swerve past their vehicles.

According to the GMB, refuse collection is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country – with at least 12 staff killed over the two years 2014/15 and 2015/16.

"Being driven at by angry drivers, and put at risk of death or serious injury on a daily basis, should not be dismissed as some sort of occupational inconvenience to just be got on with; our members deserve to go into work knowing they will come home to their families safe at the end of the day, just like anybody else,” said Bert Schouwenburg, GMB National Officer.

“This has to stop and it is down to the authorities to ensure that happens,” he added. “Anyone who sees these drivers’ antics will be rightly shocked. An immediate zero-tolerance crackdown is the only way to prevent death and injury and address the 360,000 incidents reported every year.”

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