Skip to main content

UK road maintenance industry’s new safe driving through roadworks radio campaign

Leading UK road maintenance companies have this week joined together with the Highways Agency to launch a national radio campaign to ask drivers to ‘take extra care’ through roadworks. Messages being aired on commercial radio stations across England from 21st October-3rd November consist of a series of three hard-hitting messages to raise awareness among the public of the need to drive safely through roadworks.
October 22, 2013 Read time: 3 mins
The UK’s road maintenance industry has launched a radio campaign asking drivers to ‘Take Extra Care’ through roadworks
Leading UK road maintenance companies have this week joined together with the 2309 Highways Agency to launch a national radio campaign to ask drivers to ‘take extra care’ through roadworks.

Messages being aired on commercial radio stations across England from 21st October-3rd November consist of a series of %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal three hard-hitting messages audioboo.fm/BalfourBeattyCSUK false https://audioboo.fm/BalfourBeattyCSUK false false%> to raise awareness among the public of the need to drive safely through roadworks.

The campaign is being run jointly by A-One+, 2958 Amey, 1146 Balfour Beatty, 2435 Carillion, Enterprise 2377 Mouchel, Connect Roads, Connect Plus (M25), Galliford Try, 3081 Sir Robert McAlpine and 2296 Skanska UK, who provide services to the Highways Agency. The companies are all members of the Roadworkers Safety Forum, a group dedicated to reducing accidents and injuries to roadworkers.  

Every year there are hundreds of incursions into roadworks which put road workers lives at risk and lead to deaths and serious injury. These adverts focus on the lack of awareness of some drivers that roadworks are a place of work for thousands of people and that all of us have a right to expect a safe working environment.

The first message consists of a series of sirens and bells and makes a direct appeal to HGV drivers to ‘wake up’ and a voice reminds them that roadworkers are ‘made of flesh and blood’.

The second message plays a recording of a ‘sat-nav’ voice instructing a driver to plough through orange cones and kill a father of two, and ends with the message “The next time you’re approaching road works, think about the road workers, think about their families.”

The final message replays the sounds of a crash and reminds listeners that roadworks are a work place like any other.

The adverts are being broadcast during the Highways Agency’s Road Safety Awareness Week which will see awareness events taking place across the country, including the release of some hard-hitting CCTV footage which shows some of the worst incursions into roadworks on a motorway.

Tony Gates, managing director Balfour Beatty, and chair of the 2479 Highways Term Maintenance Association, which represents companies that carry out roadworks, said,  “For some reason a small minority of drivers still find it acceptable to put road workers lives in danger by not taking care when they go through roadworks. These adverts are about reminding road users that road works are like any other work place, and our workers have just as much right to work in a safe environment.”

Andy Jamieson, managing director for A-One+, said, “We launched these adverts locally last year and they proved very successful so we were delighted our colleagues across the industry have joined to support us in the first ever national radio campaign to raise awareness of roadworkers safety.”

Highways Agency asset director David Brewer said, “Improving safety at roadworks takes real collaboration across the roads industry, and I am delighted that these companies have come together to jointly fund this advertising campaign. It epitomises the spirit of co-operation that exists in our supply chain on this important issue as we continue our work to ensure that nobody comes to harm as a result of working for us - which is what our health and safety strategy 'Aiming for Zero' is all about.”

The UK road maintenance industry radio campaign ads can be heard %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal <strong>here </strong> audioboo.fm/BalfourBeattyCSUK false https://audioboo.fm/BalfourBeattyCSUK false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK driving association launches winter weather safety focus
    October 18, 2012
    UK-based driving group the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is launching its new winter driving campaign. The IAM’s winter driving campaign is intended to help motorists prepare their cars and drive them safely this winter. The campaign includes a website, drivingadvice.org.uk, containing advice, traffic updates and weather forecasts. The IAM will also be publishing weekly news releases and driving tips in reaction to the winter weather as part of the campaign.
  • IRF publishes ITS manifesto
    February 22, 2013
    Ministerial launch marks IRF’s long-term commitment to ITS deployment and the creation of conducive policy environments for the adoption of smart technology While sustainable mobility is recognised as one of the keys to social and economic development, our roads are becoming increasingly congested, road transport has negative environmental impacts and more and more cars need to be accommodated. For IRF, a pivotal response to this dilemma lies in the increased deployment of intelligent transport systems (IT
  • Asphaltica exhibition and conference will provide asphalt road knowledge
    October 31, 2012
    The global economy is still suffering, and many believe investment in road and other infrastructure is the key to its revival Over the past 14 years in Italy, only 187km of new highways have been made, but, at the same time, the amount of vehicles using the country’s roads has grown by nearly 10 million. It is in this context of financial concern and growing burden on existing road infrastructure that the sixth edition of ASPHALTICA, the only European event exclusively dedicated to the world of asphalt, bit
  • ARTBA kicks off the US National Work Zone Awareness Week
    April 11, 2018
    Motorists need heightened awareness as the approach and pass through work zones during the US National Work Zone Safety Week and after, according to ARTBA. Expect the unexpected in roadway construction work zones anytime, noted the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). Paying attention to signs, maintaining safe following distances and signaling intentions are keys to preventing work zone crashes that kill and injure drivers, passengers, pedestrians and workers.