Road maintenance workers risk accident in the workplace

Published on Dec 1

A road maintenance worker was killed on the M4, whilst crossing over to the central reservation to collect traffic cones. He was employed by a private company, hired to remove cones from the motorway after re-surfacing work had been completed.

The company was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £22,000 costs. Two workers were seen crossing the motorway in an unsafe manner shortly before the fatal accident took place and it was found that the company had failed to implement a safe system of work so that the worker and other trainees were not adequately supervised.

After the accident, a HSE inspector said, “Everyone involved in work on high speed roads should learn from this tragedy and consider whether they are doing enough to prevent needless deaths and injuries. Motorway works can be very dangerous places unless a high degree of control is maintained. Advanced warning signs should always be used when people are working on motorway roadworks to alert drivers that people may be in the road and exercise caution as they approach.”

A 2006 Highways Agency report ‘Roadworkers’ Safety Focus Groups’ states that nearly 20% of road workers have suffered from some kind of injury or accident in the workplace during the course of their career, working on the UK road network. Of the 400 respondents to the survey quoted in the report, 3% suffered major injuries, 54% had had a near miss with a vehicle, 40% had experienced objects being deliberately thrown at them from passing cars and 77% had suffered from verbal abuse.

Although these accidents may be the result of passing drivers, employers also have a responsibility to protect their workers from the dangers posed by passing drivers, whether deliberate or not. Drivers need to be made aware of work going on in the road through signs and barriers and workers need to be trained and supervised so that they are not put in a position where they risk an accident in the workplace.

Being hit by a car is not the only potential accident in the workplace that road maintenance workers face. In 2006, a road worker won £262,000 compensation. He developed Hand, Arm Vibration Syndrome and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome as a result of extensive use of vibrating tools. Because of this, he is no longer able to work in road maintenance. The employer was found to have encouraged long hours and excessive use of tools through a bonus scheme. Since the court case, the company has scrapped this bonus scheme and now monitors use of tools to better ensure worker safety.

Road workers also face the other hazards of working on a construction site such as slips and trips, falls from a height, injuries whilst lifting or carrying and injuries caused by moving objects (including the moving parts of machinery and falling objects). The Highways Agency Director has issued a statement stating that “Everyone is entitled to a safe workplace, yet road workers risk death and injury at work every day [and night] making sure our roads remain safe and in good condition.” The dangers of an accident in the workplace faced by road workers can be reduced through careful management by employers.