Quote:
The Road Worker Safety Strategy and Action Plan are part of Aiming for Zero, the Highways Agency's vision and strategy for health and safety across its workforce.
My observations, backed up by passengers in vehicle , all with rail safety qualifications - of at least Controller of site safety -which allows the holder to set up a safe system of work where traffic is still travelling at up to 125MPH, TOTAL BLOCK ( NOTHING MOVING) or various states in between . For years we travelled up & down ,mostly the M6/M1, and where we would throw a worker off site for not looking around to make certain that stepping into an area that ( with live trains working) could cause danger ( even though we had a system set up to detect the presence of trains), we noticed that road workers were ( IN OUR HUMBLE OPINIONS) dicing with death . No persons seemed to be observing traffic ,to warn persons crossing carriage ways, or acting in any safety capacity .
We often commented that on track - if a train driver thought that workers presented a danger, they'd be reported, and not allowed on track till their actions were proved safe .
But then ,perhaps the real difference in safety - on rail -every person takes responsibility for safety.On the road - the driver solely is responsible. I would suggest that until the message comes across that ALL road users are responsible for the safety of themselves ,and lookout for the safety of others, that "The Road Worker Safety Strategy and Action Plan" will always be ,not a vision ,but a mirage .