The theme of Road Safety Week 2022 was ‘safe roads for all,’ bringing together communities and professionals to shout out for everyone’s right to make safe and healthy journeys, whether you are walking, riding, driving or using public transport.

VolkerHighways’ West Berkshire highways term maintenance contract visited two local primary schools, Cold Ash St Mark’s CE Primary School, and Fir Tree Primary School in Newbury, where they met with a total of 74 children in years 5 and 6. The team taught the children the basics of road safety as they undertook various fun learning activities, for example matching words to drawings and word searches. The children also met with VolkerHighways’ mascot, Kerby and took turns to sit in Kevin the gritter!

Thanks to the success of their visit, the team are planning on visiting more local primary schools in January.

Jonathan Ullmer, project manager for VolkerHighways, said: “Road Safety Week is a great opportunity to teach the younger generation about our roads, and how everyone can safely use them. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the children interact with us and asking lots of questions. We look forward to working with other local schools in the New Year.”

Roadworker safety

Road Safety Week also gives us the opportunity to raise awareness around roadworker safety. Unfortunately, research by National Highways reveal, on average, there are around 300 incidents a week of incursions and abuse reported by road workers. This has resulted in a need for increased controls, such as body worn CCTV and airlock barrier systems.

We understand that it’s frustrating when travel takes longer due to roadworks, but please always show respect for the workforce, who are putting themselves at increased risk to construct and maintain our roads, enabling us all to make safer journeys. 

Jason Convey, head of HSEQS for VolkerHighways, said: “We need roadworkers to enable us to move freely, to keep our roads interlinked, and free from hazards. At VolkerHighways, we are continuously aiming to create a safe working environment for our workforce and the public, so that incidents are reduced, and roads can be safely used and maintained.”