The dangers faced by road workers have been put under the spotlight after an incident that left a man with multiple injuries.
The 65-year-old was walking along the pavement after routinely assessing repairs to a pothole when he was struck by a car. He was left with serious injuries and says it’s a miracle he wasn’t killed.
Figures released by Highways England reveal that 12 road workers, including two traffic officers, have lost their lives on the network over the past ten years. In three of the cases the victims were knocked down by members of the public.
Meanwhile, over the past ten years, workers have been injured by motorists on more than 50 occasions. Seventeen of those incidents involved workers on foot.
And since May there have been around 150 recorded incidents each month of vehicles encroaching onto sites where work is taking place.
Highways England is urging drivers to take extra care around roadworks and observe speed limits.
“Nobody needs a road so badly that somebody needs to lose their life while maintaining or improving it; it is my absolute priority that people go home safely at the end of every day,” said Highways England Midlands Regional Director Catherine Brookes.
“It is simply unacceptable that people run the risk of being killed or seriously injured while doing their job,” she added. “While we can’t eliminate risk on the road network we need to do our utmost to protect the lives of both drivers and road workers.”
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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