NEWSSLOW DOWN MIn June 2017, Slow Down MoveOver was launched in the UK,following an incident in whicha recovery worker was struckat the roadside, leaving himseverely injured.“Sadly, one of my workers was hitwhilst loading a car onto a truck inChelmsford.“I attended the incident and tobe honest I wasn’t sure if he wasgoing to make it when I saw himlying there,” explains Paul Anstee,owner of Service on Site.“Thankfully he survived, but hewas quite severely injured andthat really reiterated to me thedangers of this job.”“SDMO is a campaign working toraise awareness of the vulnerabilityof all road users, who may findthemselves either stranded orworking at the roadside,” Ansteeexplains.“This really is a huge issue for roadusers at the moment, especiallyconsidering how much busierour roads have become in recentyears.“There are currently laws inrelation to due care and attention,but we want there to be a specificlaw introduced related to takingnecessary steps when confrontedwith these scenarios.“We also want to push for changesto the Highway Code, so that it hasbetter guidance and instruction fordrivers, particularly learners, onconfronting these situations.”The severity of this issue is notknown, primarily due to a lack ofdetail in the recording of accidents.“It is difficult to know exactly howmany incidents like this occureach year, because sadly theyare just registered as road trafficcollisions, there is no specificmention of it involving someoneon the roadside.”Around the same time as thelaunch of SDMO, a worker wastragically killed after being hitworking on a car at the roadside.Steven Godbold had beenattending to a broken down vehiclewhen he was struck and tragicallykilled at the age of 52.In the wake of his death, hispartner Sam Cockerill teamedup with Anstee to promote themessage of road safety and tohopefully prevent similar incidentsever happening again.There are similar initiatives toSDMO already in place in the US,Canada and Australia, all of whichhave had great success andgained significant publicity.Anstee is pleased that thecampaign has been effectiveelsewhere, and hopes that it canhave a similar affect in the UK.“SDMO is very big in thosecountries, and we hope to bringmore awareness of the issue tothe UK.“In the US and Australia, it iswritten into law and is enforced bypolice, and we are hoping that itwill one day be the case here too.”Like all industries, the recoveryindustry has faced its ownchallenges in the past 12 months,and the SDMO campaign hasbeen hindered by this.“As for everybody the past yearhas presented unprecedentedchallenges and I have had to befocusing on my own business.28
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