Recovery certificates remain valid

Thursday 21 March 2013
Stichting Incident Management Nederland has decided that already issued certificates for the training Safe Roadside Work Practices (Veilig Werken langs de Weg) will remain valid at least until 1 April 2016. This also applies if the course was followed as part of the Light Recovery. training programme. Nonetheless, recovery companies must keep abreast of recent changes to the rules for the safe handling of road traffic incidents. In carrying out all their work, they must comply with the latest version of the rules.

Over the past few years, a series of new safety instructions have been introduced for recovery companies and other emergency services workers on the road. The most important change in 2010 was the addition of special rules for working on roads with no carriageway separation. New guidelines were also introduced for dealing with electrical vehicles and the use of motorcycles in marking out incident locations. These changes led in November 2012 to the publication of a new version of the Guideline on Primary Safety Measures at Road Traffic Accidents (Richtlijn Eerste Veiligheidsmaatregelen bij Verkeersincidenten).

For recovery operators and other roadside emergency services workers, the prescribed training course Safe Roadside Work Practices has been altered to include these changes. The various training organisations can introduce these changes at their own discretion. This process will be completed in 2013 by the introduction of a new examination. This uniform examination will apply to all training institutes subject to the rules of the Examination Chamber. Stichting Incident Management Nederland applauds the introduction of uniform examinations. Nonetheless, the foundation judges the quality of previously issued certificates as being sufficient to allow them to continue to be valid, for the time being.