Getting all road users home safe and well every day

We are urging all drivers on Cornish roads to slow down and take care as they drive near roadworks as part of our new ‘home safe and well’ campaign. The campaign will raise awareness of the risks to workers on the road, make them more visible and hear pleas from their friends and families about why it’s important to slow down and drive carefully near roadworks.

Ultimately, everyone on Cornwall’s roads should get home safe and well at the end of their drive, or at the end of their shift, every day.

Cormac Highways, Environment and Civil Engineering teams carry out essential repairs, maintenance and construction across 7500km of Cornwall’s roads in rural and urban areas. Keeping roads open and traffic moving means people can keep connected and businesses can continue to operate - which is vital for everyone.

The work to keep the roads open and safe, such as clearing drains and gullies, trimming grass on verges, repairing potholes or resurfacing, means Cormac teams are often working close to areas that car and lorry drivers could go speeding past, putting them at risk.

Last year 1 in 6 Cormac operatives working on the highways were involved in incidents or potential collisions, also known as near misses, in the Duchy. It has also been reported that verbal abuse cases rose by 10% in 2020, compared to the same period the previous year, despite the lower traffic flows as a result of Covid-19 restrictions.

Ian Bounsall, Cormac Business Director for Regional Business and Surfacing, says “We have over 600 men and women out repairing and maintaining the road networks across Cornwall, day in, day out. The road is their office and both serious injury or loss of life is unfortunately a very real threat to them, as is physical and verbal abuse. We understand that people have busy lives but ask everyone to please respect our operatives. space and the very challenging job they do. Please be vigilant and take extra care when driving through roadworks, so that we can keep working safely and help keep Cornwall moving.  We need our Cormac teams to make it home safe and well to their families every day.”

Cormac conducts many large and small improvement schemes in the region and sadly incidents involving speeding, carelessness and abusive drivers are on the increase.  If everyone is more aware of the dangers faced by our workforce, they can help reduce potential collisions and incidents in the future.

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