Can manager be held responsible?

[Broxi51]

Our Manager hauls us down to the front of the office each morning and gives us a pep talk.
However, when conditions are icy or snow is falling he reminds the rural drivers to take their time,
assess the road before driving down it and bring any mail back rather than end up in a ditch etc.
As a nice finishing touch he will usually then state that we are lapsing town x & y.
Obviously this then puts pressure on the drivers. A couple will approach the manager and inform him that
they will take their lapsing when they return & IF they have time within their duty. However, others
feel pressured into taking it and they actually drive faster in crap conditions so that they can finish
on their time or before if possible.
My question is simple; If any driver has an accident after the pep talk and has taken the lapsing out can the
manager be held responsible since they knew the conditions and yet still expected them to take more when
caution was required. I know that the posties should be responsible for rushing round in bad conditions
but they felt pressurised by management.I just wondered what the legal stance was.

[Hitcher]

Postie's fault.

[TheCobra]

Just say no, if they force you to take it, go safely and slowly if necessary, work to your time and bring any mail you can't deliver back. End of story.

[fng]

Posties fault all day long ! Do what you can in the time allowed at a reasonable pace. Let the managers manage.

[twobags]

work to your hours and safely if you cant deliver then you cant deliver , inform your manager at least an hour before you go out that for safety reasons you may not complete ,ask him what he wants you to do take or leave if he says take inform him an hour before you are due back that you are bringing mail back at the end of your contracted duty hours only thing is if you decide to go down the road of working to your contracted hours , you have to work to them even on light days , which im happy to do