Roadworkers Speak Out
40% of road workers have had missiles thrown at them!
Roadworker Ged Askew of Peterlee, County Durham has first hand experienced of just how dangerous the job can be. Ged, aged 35, was injured twice within a year while carrying out lane closures on the A19 on Teesside. Three years ago he suffered a back injury and severe whiplash when the mobile lane closure vehicle he was sitting in was hit from behind by an HGV vehicle as he worked on the A19 near the Hartlepool turn-off. Then just 11 months later he again suffered whiplash when his vehicle was hit by a motorist travelling at high speed this time near the Castle Eden turn-off of the A19. That driver was later convicted of drink driving. Two years on Ged still suffers from lower back pain as a result of his injuries. |
Almost one in five of the 400 workers who responded to the survey said they had suffered some injury caused by passing vehicles in the course of their careers while working on our road network.
More than three-quarters of respondents said they had suffered verbal abuse from drivers, and 40% reported having objects thrown at them by motorists.
Drivers are being urged drive with care and consideration, and in particular to make sure they slow down, keep within the signed speed limits, and pay attention to road signs and works traffic. A new advice leaflet, launched today, will be distributed by the Agency at exhibitions and shows.
Roadworkers were asked if they had experienced: deliberate throwing of missiles, near miss, verbal abuse, slight personal injury caused by road user's vehicle (eg bruising), major personal injury caused by road user's vehicle (eg broken bones). The responses were
- 13% of roadworkers surveyed had sustained slight injuries
- 3% had sustained major injuries
- 77% had suffered verbal abuse from passing drivers
- 54% had a near miss with a vehicle
- 40% had experienced missiles deliberately thrown at them
Road workers felt most at risk during the morning and evening peak travel periods and in the early hours of the morning.
Copies of the 'Driving Through Roadworks' advice leaflet will be distributed by the Agency at exhibitions and events. Further information is available on the Highways Agency website: www.highways.gov.uk , by following the link called: 'Safety through roadworks'.
I always reduce my speed to that limit and am amazed at the percentage of vehicles that come streaming past at 70 or 80mph.
the following seem particularly immune to speed limits:
Young girls in hatchbacks
Black VW Golf
BMW
Semi sports cars MX5 etc
Women with posher cars like Saab Cabs.
Women with kids, granny & shopping in the car.
given the sheer over abundance of cones, lanes closures, road closures, extreme duration of road works, and crazy traffic management schemes. Last weekend we were stuck in a set of roadworks where they were using a convoy vehicle to restrict traffic to 10mph over a 2.5 mile stretch of road, for a group of 5 workers who were working on a 100 yard section of this - I have got no problem with the speed restriction past the works themselves, but for the 1.25 miles either side is just nuts.
How many times have you negotiated several miles of cones, dazzling overhead lights, speed restrictions, portable Gatsos to see no work being carried out at all?
Other countries seem to be able to complete roadworks far more quickly, and without wacko traffic management schemes and cones as far as the eye can see.
I wish I had shares in the company that supplies cones to UK highway agencies
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Ah so that's what their wasting our money on, if they fixed the roads quickly and efficiently then it wouldn't be an issue.
But when you spend 45mins sat in traffic because of roadworks (which would normally take 2mins), slowly see-sawing past the roadworkers who sit there have a cup of tea, then another and another. And the goverment wonders why people are angry (or the roadworkers!)
westmoorfarm said:
Last weekend we were stuck in a set of roadworks where they were using a convoy vehicle to restrict traffic to 10mph over a 2.5 mile stretch of road, for a group of 5 workers who were working on a 100 yard section of this - I have got no problem with the speed restriction past the works themselves, but for the 1.25 miles either side is just nuts.
Spot on! And don't the convoy marshalls just love their job.
Mind you I do wonder if the people who wazz it through roadworks would be happy if I came and passed within 10 ft of the back of their office chair at 30 mph let alone 50mph.
There isnt one thing in this country that people wont find a reason to winge about. People even winge about TVRs for god sake.
Our roads need fixing, People risk there lives doing just that and we respond by hurling abuse and objects at them "well done". If you take the time to acctually think about what there enduring then maybe you would slow down and stop the abuse. Its far easier to sit on your backside in your warm office and complain.
See now you got me wingeing. "BUMMER"
All the best
Lee
There was some pavement work going on, no roadworks spilling out into the road, no lights or restrictions.
As I am riding out, I notice that im closing on a friend of mine ahead so I pip my horn at him. All of a sudden some scrawny roadworker runs out into the road at me and says rather elogantly "YOU F**KING BEEPING AT ME YOU C**T????"
Erm no, no im not, you pikey looking freak.
I dont like to stereotype tbe workers of trades such as binmen, roadworkers, dominos pizza people and stuff but sometimes there is a good reason that they are doing jobs where they cant do any real harm to society with their "stunning" insight and intellect.....
I appreciate that there may be miles of cones out on the road with no workers in sight but that doesn't mean to say they are not working at the top or bottom of an embankment, beneath the road, etc.
Cones are on the roads a to provide a safety zone between vehicles and site workers and if you have never experienced working alongside vehicles travelling at 50mph +, then please take it from me that it is not a pleasant environment to work in.
Would you do motorway speeds on an urban road where you have pedestrians on footpaths beside the road ??
My personal opinion is that anyone caught speeding through roadworks should be made to spend a day working within traffic management and experience it for themselves. I can guarantee that you will never do it again.
PLEASE SLOW DOWN WHEN DRIVING THROUGH ROADWORK'S
westmoorharm said:
How many times have you negotiated several miles of cones, dazzling overhead lights, speed restrictions, portable Gatsos to see no work being carried out at all?
I used to think this, but having worked on the m/way and various trunk roads i now see it from the other side.
The thing is that all the TM has to be set up in advance and for the full length of the works.
Eg we were surveying a section of the M6 one night, Driver one goes by, sees 2k of cones and no-one there - the TM guys have just set up and gone to the next job, i arrive 5 min later
Driver 2 goes by 10mins later 2K of cones and me in the van having a cuppa before starting! no one else there!
Driver 3 goes by at 1am, there's just me and my assistant half way down the 2k.
See what i'm saying? As you whizz by at 80mph three feet from my elbow you get an instant snapshot of the day or nights work, unless you're there all the time you can't crticise!
Rich
(and yes I've had verbals and a close shave before)
During my time on the tools, I can assure you that working on the hard shoulder of a motorway is prety scary as things pass you at 70mph+.
I have every sympathy for the roadworks who often do not get the protection they need. Especially if drivers do not slow down to the posted temporary limits.
westmoorfarm said:
Not really surprising that drivers get p*ssed off
Last weekend we were stuck in a set of roadworks where they were using a convoy vehicle to restrict traffic to 10mph over a 2.5 mile stretch of road, for a group of 5 workers who were working on a 100 yard section of this - I have got no problem with the speed restriction past the works themselves, but for the 1.25 miles either side is just nuts.
How many times have you negotiated several miles of cones, dazzling overhead lights, speed restrictions, portable Gatsos to see no work being carried out at all?
Other countries seem to be able to complete roadworks far more quickly, and without wacko traffic management schemes and cones as far as the eye can see.
I wish I had shares in the company that supplies cones to UK highway agencies
HEAR HEAR
now face the traffic on the drivers side,its not a pleasent experience.
now turn your back on the traffic.
if you survive you will gain an understanding of what roadside workers have to put up with.
a couple of cones dont feel like much protection when traffic is going past at 70+
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