Birmingham City University (BCU) and National Highways have teamed up to launch two research projects to enhance road worker and traffic officer safety.
The partnership and funding stem from the work of Professor David Edwards and the Infrastructure Futures Research Group at BCU, which aims to enhance the built environment’s impact on society, the economy, and the planet. Their work is finding ways to ensure that buildings and infrastructure are more resilient, safer, and sustainable by design.
Led by BCU’s Dr Aya Bayramova and Dr Loretta Bortey (pictured either side of Prof Edwards), the three-year studies will seek to make use of existing data to predict and prevent future incidents on England’s motorways and major A roads.
Dr Bayramova’s research will develop a Leading Indicators Framework (LIF) to predict safety risks before incidents occur.
Unlike traditional safety measures that focus on past accidents, LIF will highlight early warning signs, helping workers and safety advisors take preventive action. The framework will also change how people view safety, by incorporating user-friendly tools for workers to make them aware of potential risks and their preventative measures before work has started.
“Our goal is to create a practical tool that reduces serious injuries and saves lives,” said Dr Bayramova.
“Such tools will help eliminate serious injuries and loss of life in a working environment. They can also be adopted by other organisations in safety critical industries and sectors.”
Dr Bortey’s project will use AI and machine learning to analyse safety data and identify weak points in current safety systems.
By developing Safety Resilience Indicators (SRIs), her research aims to predict and prevent workplace dangers before they happen and highlight potential risks in systems that may never have been considered before.
“Traffic officers face unpredictable dangers every day at work,” said Dr Bortey. “By developing a proactive machine learning model, we can give safety managers the tools to anticipate risks and take preventative action. This research has the potential to reshape safety practices, not only on roads, but in other high-risk sectors like construction and emergency services.
“I want to create a smarter, more forward-thinking approach to protecting those who are working to keep others safe.”
National Highways is investing £700,000 in these projects to turn research into real-world solutions that can be implemented to help get people home safe.
“Using new techniques to better understand our data helps us predict where future incidents are most likely, as well as creating new ways to influence behaviours and prevent harm,” said Professor Iain Rillie, Health and Safety Technical Innovation Specialist at National Highways.
“This is an exciting development in our approach to improving safety and we’re delighted to be collaborating with BCU to create practical solutions that will help get people home safely. As an organisation, National Highways understands that innovation is vital in this fast-paced, data-led, digital age.
“We’re committed to working with academia and industry to develop new approaches that can improve how we operate the Strategic Road Network safely and efficiently.”
(Pic: l-r: Dr Loretta Bortey, Prof David Edwards, Dr Aya Bayramova – Birmingham City University)
