Safety Buddy encourages site traffic to reduce speed
NORMALLY used by Premiership players to practise their free-kicks, life-sized cut-outs similar to those used at football training grounds are set to make their debut on UK roads in a bid to keep sites safe and ensure that construction drivers watch their speed in roadworks.
Dean Weston, safety advisor for Tarmac National Contracting, saw the potential to adapt the life-size cut-outs for highway works as a way of encouraging Tarmac drivers and hauliers to keep an eye on their speed when travelling through the internal works area of sites.
The high-visibility, life-size figures can be fitted with an LED display to give drivers a visual warning of their actual speed, as well having safety messages emblazoned on their chest and back.
The speed detectors have been trialled on the M6, near Stafford, as part of the Junction 14 to 16 hard shoulder strengthening phase 3, and initial results indicate that the figures have successfully reduced traffic speeds because drivers see their speed flash up and also think the cut-outs are real people.
Commenting on the trial, Glyn Williams, senior safety manager at Tarmac National Contracting, said: ‘Our modified cut-outs have proved to be a unique and effective way of reducing the speed of our drivers.
‘With a rise in road worker fatalities in England last year, improving site safety and reducing risk for our employees is a major priority.’
Dean Weston, safety advisor for Tarmac National Contracting, saw the potential to adapt the life-size cut-outs for highway works as a way of encouraging Tarmac drivers and hauliers to keep an eye on their speed when travelling through the internal works area of sites.
The high-visibility, life-size figures can be fitted with an LED display to give drivers a visual warning of their actual speed, as well having safety messages emblazoned on their chest and back.
The speed detectors have been trialled on the M6, near Stafford, as part of the Junction 14 to 16 hard shoulder strengthening phase 3, and initial results indicate that the figures have successfully reduced traffic speeds because drivers see their speed flash up and also think the cut-outs are real people.
Commenting on the trial, Glyn Williams, senior safety manager at Tarmac National Contracting, said: ‘Our modified cut-outs have proved to be a unique and effective way of reducing the speed of our drivers.
‘With a rise in road worker fatalities in England last year, improving site safety and reducing risk for our employees is a major priority.’
