The British Driving Society
NORTH EAST WALES
SAFETY ISSUES

I was appointed honorary Health/Safety advisor & AAC to BDS North East Wales during early 2007; I have spent many years dealing with Insurance Companies, The Health & Safety Executive and its associated   statutory bodies.  I will ensure all Area events are risk assessed and it is my duty to inform the Area Commissioner what should be done to ensure every event is run smoothly and safely, most important of all within the law and protected by liability Insurance.

 RISK ASSESSING
Every Area event must be risk assessed; this is a simple common sense task to prevent any unforeseen accidents, it is not a paper writing exercise for the file, without putting any preventative measures into place, we are looking at identifying the magnitude of risk, if risk exists, do something about it and should the unforeseen happen, a vital piece of evidence you will be asked to produce.

AFFILIATED BDS GROUPS IN NORTH EAST WALES.
Affiliated members are groups with there own constitutions and governing documents these affiliates must take out there own Public Liability Insurance, they are not covered by the BDS events insurance, and have no claim on it.  This was confirmed at the Area Commissioners AGM on 19^th April 2008, it was unfortunate that some groups thought otherwise and raised this question.

JOINT EVENTS WITH OTHERS GROUPS OR BDS AFFILIATES
The BDS North East Wales is happy to consider running joint events with other groups who must agree to abide with the following best practice as confirmed to me by the BDS Vice Chairman on 25^th June 2008.

 1.Any joint event shall only be organised by the BDS or BDS Area and run according to BDS rules. The organiser of any joint event shall only be the BDS Area Commissioner or Assistant Area Commissioner and no one else.

2. The other party joining in the event must hold current public liability events insurance (minimum £5m) and a copy given to the Area Commissioner or Assistant Area Commissioner.

 3. All those taking part must be current BDS members or hold current third party public liability, which must be produced at the event; BDS members must also show their current membership cards.

 4. The Area Commissioner or Assistant’s have the authority to refuse anyone joining the event who does not hold any insurance and have the sole right to disqualify anyone from the event for improper conduct.

 It should be noted that items 1 to 3 are a mandatory condition of cover for BDS Events Insurance, failure to observe will result in refusal by the BDS Insurers & underwriters to cover the joint event. Which means running without any liability cover, this alone can have the most disastrous financial consequence on the event organiser.

 If the above appears strict, it is meant to, an accident can cost the organiser £Ms, if in doubt ask, after the event is too late.

 Bob Hargreaves Dip Nebosh,
AAC BDS North East Wales

31^st July 2008