It’s all about awareness – whether you use your feet or wheels – you must pay attention

Sharing streetscapes means staying alert at all times, says Lesley Mcleod

Pedestrians are more likely to be killed or seriously injured in construction accidents than other groups. I’d not be surprised if you were saying to yourself, ‘how can that woman from the Association for Project Safety [APS] possibly come up with something like that?’ Let me explain. New government figures reveal that every year around 30 people lose their lives on British building sites. Many more are either seriously injured or contract life-limiting illnesses and conditions. the aps exists – and works with other construction professionals – to bring those numbers down.

Not surprisingly the focus has, largely, been on building sites. But, maybe we’ve been a bit short-sighted. And that is where the pedestrians come in.

In Scotland construction traffic is responsible for somewhere around 50 of those killed or seriously injured in road accidents. Across the UK this figure is – staggeringly – over 500.

The numbers originally came from research carried out for Transport for London [TFL] which manages the roads and their use in the UK capital. The figures were part of a programme spearheaded by the then London Mayor, Boris Johnson – an avid pedal-cyclist – to help cut the number of two-wheel enthusiasts getting hurt on the roads.

However, when the results were analysed two things stood out: first, it wasn’t predominantly a problem for lycra-loving cyclists as leather-clad motorcyclists and users of Shank’s pony were statistically more likely to be victims; and, secondly, it wasn’t just a London issue, with incidents spread quite evenly beyond the M25.

So, when the APS was approached and asked to support CLOCS (Construction Logistics and Community Safety) we came on board immediately.

It’s all about awareness – both alerting people to the issue and highlighting the need for all road users to be more attentive when sharing streetspace.

Now, changing the habits of a lifetime is no easy matter – as anyone who has ever tried dieting, giving up smoking or swearing when under duress will attest. Improved road- safety, like everything else, starts by admitting change is needed at all. Lasting behavioural change takes time before tiny, incremental shifts start to add up.

Necessary sustained political will sadly is often absent where that change needs legislative or regulatory input. And anything that needs a minimum of 18 months to bear fruit is glacial in a world where a week is – as we have seen recently – famously a very long time indeed. But it can be done. There have been three major cultural shifts in my lifetime – aside from no longer needing to go to work in a skirt. Fifty years on from the decriminalisation of male homosexuality the country is, in general, more tolerant of difference – let’s just hope Theresa

May’s need for support from the DUP doesn’t see that going into reverse. Smoking is no longer the norm or a rite of passage. And our attitudes to driving have undergone a radical rethink.

Having a couple of pints or an indulgent lunch before getting behind the wheel is no longer acceptable. Similarly, seat-belt wearing is just part of the routine. But other things, like speeding, are more resistant.

A big part of the mystique of the motor car is, I think, the personal space. The place where the rest of the world can’t get you. It’s dangerous in its deliciousness.

It may be why normally law-abiding people cast aside caution and convention – like knickers thrown at Tom Jones – when they get behind the wheel and turn into inattentive, territorial petrol-heads. And pedalpushers or pedestrians, plugged into personal media, can far too readily forget real-life hazards.

The freedom of the road is seductive but it cannot be freedom without responsibility. A family car weighs about twice that of an adult male rhinoceros – and you wouldn’t want one of those bearing down on you at thirty miles an hour. So why we think of our own four wheels as anything less dangerous has always been a mystery to me.

Since working on road safety campaigns I’ve tried to remember my Highway Code, stick to the speed limit and, generally, become a more considerate road-user. And I’m not being some holier-than-thou safety proselytiser: the consequences simply scared me sensible. I’d rather live slow and die old than crash and burn middle-aged. The more we are all aware of the world around us – on the roads as in life elsewhere – the better it will be.

And that is a good ‘life lesson’ in politics, in construction risk management and on the roads. Lesley Mcleod is CEO, the Association For Project Safety