2014. 06. 20..

The third week of June saw the Group’s Safety Week organised globally for a second time.

In the past eight years, several fatal accidents occurred at the Colas Group during works on roads not closed to traffic. For this reason, the central topic of this year’s Safety Week was the performance of works in the close vicinity of traffic.

Standards and regulations for health and safety aspects of such works vary between countries. These rules tend to concentrate on safeguarding motorists, while often failing to provide ample protection for people working near the flow of traffic. But who should protect us then?

Even on motorways, drivers are likely to neglect speed restrictions and signs indicating ongoing works, albeit running someone over at motorway speed almost certainly leads to fatal injuries. This is why we have to take all reasonable measures in our authority to ensure the safety of our colleagues working close to traffic.

Between 16 and 20 June, our co-workers attended presentations on safety issues concerning works near traffic at a total of over 30 work sites, offices and facilities. Moreover, their attention was called to the blind spots of trucks and machines, the importance of work trench shoring and observing the traffic order at mixing sites.

Each month, Colas’ Hungarian employees spend a total of 3200 kilometres behind the wheels of company vehicles, making road safety another key topic of this year’s Safety Week. 110 colleagues trusted with company cars participated in driving trainings at the Hungaroring race track and the Driving Camp near Zsámbék, where emergency situations are simulated with slippery surfaces, water columns, skid pads, and traffic cones. The goal of the training is to avoid being caught off guard when facing an actual emergency situation.

Safety Week is a major event of the parent company’s Safety Attitude campaign – during this one-week period, almost everything revolves around safe working conditions. In addition to reminders on regulations by colleagues from the Health and Safety Department, executives also played an active role in this year’s Safety Week programmes, signifying that each and every one of us is responsible for safety on the work site – and not only for a week.