DRIVERS of company cars are being urged to take the lead in a campaign to cut road accidents.

Three new codes to cut deaths and injuries have been launched by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

In a comprehensive move to get the message through to road users, RoSPA is trying to persuade professional and trade associations, unions, local authorities, insurers, police and safety groups to sign up to guidelines covering speed, driver fatigue and driver competence.

About 1,000 of Britain's annual road deaths involve people who are on the road as part of their work, making it the country's biggest occupational safety problem.

Drivers of company cars and vans have a poor accident record when compared to other drivers.

RoSPA's occupational safety adviser, Roger Bibbings, said "Employers can no longer afford to ignore this vital safety issue.

"The government's task force of work-related road safety has shown there is a massive concensus for action.

"It is in the interests of every company and their employees to sign up to our codes covering the key areas of speed, fatigue and driver competence.

"Drivers should not normally be behind the wheel for more than 350 miles in a single day. If they are, we believe they will be too tired on the road and are likely to speed to get the job done."

Black-box technology can help employers monitor the way people drive and allow them to spot speeders and erratic drivers.

"Research shows that it is often the more powerful company cars that are involved in speeding incidents," said Mr Bibbings.

"Driver training has been proved to make people less likely to have accidents."

Latest figures from the Department for Transport show that the number of people seriously injured on Britain's roads fell by a further 3 per cent last year (to 37,094, from 38,155 in 2000.

But road deaths increased by 1 per cent, from 3,409 to 3,443.

The number of child deaths rose by 14 per cent (from 191 to 218).

The number of children who died while travelling in cars went up from 49 to 75.

Over the past decade road deaths have fallen significantly from 4,568 in 1991 to 3,443 in 2001.

The number of car-user deaths has fallen over that period from 2,053 to 1,744. Pedal cyclist deaths has fallen from 242 to 138, and pedestrian deaths from 1,496 to 823.

Road safety minister David Jameieson said: "These statistic are never good news, even when they are going down.

"They still represent an unbearable toll of pain and grief.

"The number of road deaths has been less than 3,450 since 1998. We want to know why it has not fallen below 3,400."