Efforts to significantly reduce the number of live carriageway crossings are among measures being championed by Highways England, which last week reiterated its safety ambition to key supply chain partners.

Chief highways engineer Mike Wilson (pictured) told TP Weekly News: “We are re-emphasising the fact that safety is the top priority for Highways England and that we believe no one should be harmed when travelling or working on the network. Going forward it is our ambition to make better use of technology and share more best practice with our supply chain to further improve safety.”

Mr Wilson said that the greater use of fixed variable message signs to replace temporary signs in the central reserve is among the strategies planned to reduce the need for operatives to cross live traffic lanes.

He added that a renewed focus on safety is needed to ensure that Highways England meets is target of reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on strategic roads by 40% by the end of 2020. By 2040 the aim is to get the number down to as close to zero as possible.

Staying with safety, last week saw the Department for Transport publish its latest reported road casualty statistics for Great Britain. It showed that there were 1700 road deaths in the year to June, down 2% compared with the year before.

A total of 22,830 people were killed or seriously injured, down 7% on the previous year and there were 180,500 casualties of all severity, again down 7%. These improvements in safety were set against a backdrop of levels of motor traffic rising by 2.3% over the year.

Photos courtesy of Highways England