Lower speed limits in school zones are deeply respected and obeyed by the community. Why should road work zones be any different?
About this seminar
Downer Infrastructure Services maintains more than 40,000 km of road in Australia. Between January 2012 and July 2016, the organisation recorded 3665 near misses relating to driving members of the public doing the wrong thing on their worksites.
Road workers face speeding and aggressive drivers on an almost daily basis, placing them in dangerous and scary situations. Workers report being verbally and physically abused, spat at and even threatened with speeding vehicles.
While the organisation ensures its road work sites use traffic management systems and warning signage to lower speeds and protect their workers, their workers’ experience is that drivers don’t respect work zones in the same way they do school zones.
Downer developed a near-miss reporting system that empowered workers to voice their concerns about safety risks on the worksite. They have also examined the emotive links of driver behaviour in school zones compared to work zones, with intriguing results.
Watch this broadcast to see what one organisation is doing to improve their workers’ safety through public awareness and culture.
Who is this seminar for?
Anyone working in transport and construction, especially road workers and associated industry associations, will find this very informative, as will academics and policy makers with an interest in road safety. Commuters and road users will also gain some valuable insights from this broadcast.
About the presenters
Jim Appleby from Downer Infrastructure Services presents this broadcast. Jim is the National General Manager of road surfacing. He has strong expertise in strategic business management, team leadership, and complex contract delivery in roads, highways and airfields.
This broadcast is supported by the National Road and Safety Partnership Program and the Australian Road and Research Board.
Supporting information