Highways contractor A-one+, has produced a video to highlight to the supply chain the dangers of service strikes and to highlight to the workforce the importance of following safe systems of work.
The video also comes at a time when the sector has seen a rose in strikes, including seven over just a two week period on the strategic network alone.
A-one+ which carries out over 150 schemes annually, had, up until March 2020, gone five million hours and over two and a half years without either a RIDDOR reportable or High Potential incident.
Despite the severity of the incident, which was eventually reported as a ‘High Potential Near Miss’, nobody was seriously hurt.
However, as the short four minute video, which features brothers Jon and Dave Grayson, who were carrying out the works on the A64, illustrates, a serious incident involving a strike is a risk we take each time we break ground.
Jon Grayson said, “Luckily on this occasion nobody was hurt but thinking back I realise that it could have been so different.
“I could have been going home and having to tell my nephew and niece that their dad wasn’t coming home, or he may have had to do the same.”
Speaking on the film, General Manager for Area 12, Brian Statham said: “We have an excellent safety record on the contract, which is why when something like this happens it is all the more frightening and shows you how precious life is. We have won over 50 awards (for our ethos around safety), all of that would have gone in an instant and we would have killed somebody.
“What we have learned from this is that we MUST follow safe systems of work, Risk Assessments and Method Statements are there to protect you.”
