Road closures: Workers facing knives, machetes and guns

There are calls for a crackdown on abusive motorists following claims road workers have been threatened with knives, machetes, a crossbow and guns.

New figures obtained by the BBC show 541 cases of abuse towards highway workers were recorded by National Highways between 2020 and 2023.

Sinead Ryan from HW Martin Traffic Management said: "One time someone actually pulled a gun out on me.

"It's not a normal night if you don't experience someone swear at you."

She said: "Other times I've had lorry drivers try to get in the van, they slam their hands on the bonnet."

A campaign called Stamp it Out is aiming to reduce abuse towards staff.

Ian Bennett from Balfour Beatty, who is the traffic manager at the M25 and A3 roadworks scheme in Surrey, says he has suffered years of abuse from drivers.

"We suffer verbal abuse, physical abuse, objects being thrown, we get urine, dirty nappies, bottles. It's a constant battle."

He said: "I've had colleagues who've had knives, machetes and even a shotgun pulled out and told they don't care the road is closed they're going down there regardless."

Jonathan Wade, senior project manager for National Highways responsible for the M25 junction 10 scheme, said: "We have cameras, which can pick people up if they're in some way abusing the workforce.

"A motorist threw a road traffic cone at one of our guys, the driver was trying to pass through an area that was closed and he didn't like it."

Road workers in Southampton were recently given body cameras and more mobile CCTV cameras after a rise in abuse from drivers.

Brenton McClean, a Balfour Beatty supervisor from the city, told the BBC that the "scariest experience" of his career was when he claimed a farmer pointed a shot gun at him while he was working near Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

He said he had also experienced racial abuse and once had to restrain a man who attacked his colleague with a baseball bat.

In February, Wokingham Borough Council claimed a driver had intentionally hit a road worker in Finchampstead, Berkshire with their vehicle before fleeing the scene.

At the same junction, the council said motorists had threatened to stab and punch workers.

Oxfordshire County Council said some workers in the county had been "confronted with a knife, racially abused, physically manhandled and even threatened with shooting".

A driver threatened to use an electric handsaw unless he was allowed through a closed road in Birmingham, while others had made threats with a crossbows and dogs.

Steven Day, South East operations manager for Go Traffic Management, a company that installs lane and road closures, said he had spent 12 years on the roads but now has opted for a desk job.

"I had one quite severe incident where a member of the public was threatening to kill me, he was trying to open my van door, he wanted to get me out of the van. Mentally I don't want to return to that site," Mr Day said.

"It grinds you down and deflates you and you normalise abuse. It's not right and we should be addressing it."

Offences committed at road works are not limited to abusing workers.

Ch Insp Steve O'Keefe, head of roads policing covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, said: "Lane incursions, where people ignore road signs and directions drive through road closures or partial lane closures, have literally caused roadworkers to dive for safety and is so dangerous.

"There is really no place to hide. You will be detected and traced to your vehicle, if you are not arrested at the scene," he said.

Figures released by National Highways suggest over 7,200 reports of incursions have reported in the last three years.

These include cases where vehicles enter the road works or breach rolling roadblocks.

A number of companies and local authorities are backing the Stamp It Out Campaign, which is calling for a simpler incident reporting system and more public education.

The campaign group says more than 2,000 reports of abuse towards staff were recorded in 2023.

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