Osborne Supports Highways Agency Roadworker Safety Campaign

As many people are returning to work, school or college, after their summer holiday, so are roadworkers.

Traditionally roadworks resume after the August bank holiday weekend; an ideal time for us to remind all road users that our roadworkers are entitled to work in a safe environment.

No member of our workforce should come to harm when carrying out work on our roads. Without healthy, unharmed operatives, we can’t do the work we are hired for.

Osborne is supporting the Highways Agency in its annual Roadworker Safety Campaign by sending a clear message to drivers; do not risk lives and wreck families for the sake of a few seconds saved on your journey. Whether investing in a construction project, carrying out maintenance, no one should be killed or seriously injured on our network. Safety remains our top priority for those who use and work on our roads.

Road workers do vital work to keep our roads safe and well-maintained. They often don’t get the recognition they deserve for doing this very dangerous job. They face danger every day, working close to fast moving traffic all weather conditions, often at night. Even if it is not obvious that anyone is working in a coned off area there may be workers further ahead or just around the next bend.

The Highways Agency launches its two week campaign on 1 September. Overall our motorways have fewer fatalities than on other comparable roads around the world, despite carrying more heavy traffic overall. We are on course to meet the 40 per cent reduction in people killed and seriously injured on our network by 2020.

But to achieve this we need to continue our efforts to encourage drivers to play their part and take responsibility for their own safety and that of others who use the network as well as improving road safety through engineering solutions.

Between 2010 and 2021 the Government is investing some £24 billion on England’s strategic road network, and this will add more than 400 lane miles of much needed capacity to our busiest motorways.