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

  • IronPlanet’s online marketplace for used construction equipment
    April 19, 2013
    IronPlanet, a leading online auction marketplace for used construction and agricultural equipment, says it is getting close to one million registered users. The company currently has 915,000 registered users – with another 4,000-a-month said to be signing up for access to its regular online auctions.
  • BHS-Sonthofen highlights RSMX series crushers
    February 26, 2013
    BHS-Sonthofen is demonstrating its rotor centrifugal crushers of the RSMX series for processing hard and medium-hard rock to produce aggregate chippings and high-quality aggregates. The company says the rock-on-rock principle and the patented rotor with just two centrifugal chambers offer advantages over multi-chamber rotors, and these include the maximum input grain sizes of up to about 80mm for hard rock and up to 150mm for soft rock; optimal material flow in the rotor, free from clogging; 15-20% greater
  • Bentley Systems calls for submissions to 2016 Be Inspired Awards
    June 2, 2016
    Bentley Systems, a global provider of software solutions for advancing infrastructure, has announced a call for submissions to the 2016 Be Inspired Awards programme. The deadline for entries is June 10, 2016. The awards, which are selected by independent juries of industry experts, recognise the extraordinary work of organisations that help advance the world’s infrastructure by designing, engineering, constructing, delivering, and/or operating safer, more resilient, sustainable, and intelligent roads,
  • Unitruck’s money saving mirrors
    January 6, 2017
    Unitruck’s says its new range of mirrors and arms specifically for plant machinery being showcased at INTERMAT 2012 will be available through Europe’s leading Agricultural and Plant Spare Parts Dealers from this month. Owners of trucks across Europe are already said by the UK firm to be saving millions of Euros each year by fitting Unitruck’s existing range of replacement mirrors.