Lindum has hosted practical road safety workshops for school students, focussed on the risks around large vehicles.
Two groups of pupils took part at Nottingham Girls’ Academy, where the regional contractor is building new SEND accommodation that the participants will use from September.
As a Champion Member of Construction Logistics and Community Safety (CLOCS), the national standard for ensuring safer construction vehicle journeys and reducing risks to vulnerable road users, Lindum followed the CLOCS School Engagement Toolkit to deliver the sessions.
For the classroom engagement, we produced a slide show highlighting safe and unsafe places to cross a road, and a video demonstrating how a lorry driver’s view is restricted by ‘blind spots’.
This was followed by a practical demonstration outside our site using one of our 44 tonne flatbed lorries. Blind spots were marked on the ground to the front, both sides of the vehicle, and to 9m behind the vehicle.
With their classmates stood in the blind spot areas, students took turns sitting in the lorry cab – and they were surprised by how much their visibility was reduced.
One student said: “I did not know anything about blind spots beforehand, but now I know how to stay safe. If a driver cannot see you, you could be in danger, so you need to make sure you are not in the blind spots.”
Another student described the day as “the best ever because we got to sit inside a lorry”.
Emma Wilson, Deputy SENDCo and Focused Provision Lead at the academy, thanked Lindum for organising the workshops.
She said: “The staff and students alike had an amazing time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.”
Jo Carter, Office Manager at Lindum Plant Hire & Fleet Maintenance, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to engage with the students and staff on this important topic. Although Lindum goes above and beyond in terms of vehicle safety, it is still vitally important that people are aware of the risks surrounding large vehicles.
“To reinforce this point, we obscured our demonstration lorry’s additional mirrors and switched off the cameras, to replicate the minimum legal standard met by many lorries on the roads and show what drivers can, and crucially, cannot see.”
Contracts Manager Shaun Cass, who is overseeing the school works, said: “Safety is always our number one priority. Since we started construction at the end of last summer, 596 vehicles have entered our site, and we are only just nearing the half-way point.
“By expected project completion in July, that figure will be more than 1,000 vehicle movements close to a school and residential area. We believe that keeping everyone safe requires good construction safety practices and wider awareness of risks.”
Andy Brooke, CLOCS Programme Director, said: “Serious road incidents don’t usually happen because people are being careless, they happen because people don’t realise the risks, especially around large vehicles.
“Giving students the chance to see for themselves just how limited a driver’s visibility can be is incredibly powerful and could stay with them for life. Lindum should be commended for taking the time to engage with the school and deliver such a practical, memorable safety message – exactly the kind of community-focused action that CLOCS exists to encourage.”
Lindum is delivering new SEND facilities including four classrooms, breakout spaces, a social area and an office, on behalf of our client Nottingham City Council. Our site community noticeboard, which we commissioned social enterprise the Pelican Trust to make, contains CGI drawings of what the completed building will look like.
