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I know we all get a little irritated when we see the sign ahead slowing us down to 40mph and the 3 lanes we were happily trundling along about to reduce to a mere single lane but I didn’t realise that when this happens that the roadworkers are in serious danger.

Not of being run over by an inattentive speeding motorist, although this does happen, but in danger of being duffed up by a motorist who feels annoyed that he has been slowed down, abused, spat at, hit with all sorts of projectiles etc. Labourers near Wivanhoe in Essex have been subject to increasing violence from passing motorists whilst creating a new cycle lane, with one motorist caught brandishing a knuckle duster.

The local council has now followed other councils with similar problems and issued workers with police style body cameras to hopefully act as a deterrent as well as provide proof in the case where an attack takes place leading to a prosecution. Other councils suffering similar problems are in the North East and Midlands leading to the issue of these cameras to workers. Reports of attacks range from workers being punched to being shot at with an air rifle.

Ten companies that carry out roadworks have reported 441 incidents in one year alone, including 174 physical attacks. With this scale of incidents it probably won’t be long before all roadworkers are issued with body cams and even portable CCTV to record any illegal behaviour or attacks by motorists.

A sad reflection on our society when people are just doing their jobs. And if you want to duff up someone find the health & safety pen pusher who decided to cone off 5 miles of road for a hundred yards worth of repair work! By Graham Hill

You will probably remember the sad case of the Glasgow refuse truck driver who fainted at the wheel resulting in an accident causing six people to lose their lives and several more to suffer injuries.

The driver had suffered fainting attacks since 1976 but this was unknown to his employer who was held responsible, as any employer would, for the actions of their employee and for allowing him to drive their truck in the first place.

This was still the case even though they claimed that the driver had not told them of his condition. But this raises an interesting point because I only recently found out that it is unlawful for an employer to ask a job applicant about their disability or health until after they have been offered the job.

How crazy is that? However, you can apply for the medical records on the applicant, provided he or she agrees, under the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988. The medical practitioner (normally the applicant’s GP) is then obliged to provide the records requested.

If you are an employer who either provides company vehicles or pays employees to drive their own vehicles on company business by way of a car allowance or pence per mile, you have an obligation to ensure that they have the appropriate licences and do not suffer from health conditions that may affect their driving.

As an employer you are able to carry out regular assessments on drivers to ensure that they are still fit to drive. And as an employee if you have a condition that may affect your driving you are equally obliged to make your employer aware. By Graham Hill

There’s an app for that is rapidly becoming part of everyday conversation. Having created an award winning app myself that enables users to compare lease deals or simply to evaluate a deal to see if it represents good value, I know that app boundaries are limitless.

The latest app relating to motoring is aimed at younger, less than responsible, drivers that could help to prevent an accident, reduce their insurance premiums and help parents to worry a little less. The app has been created by employee tracking specialist, Romex. The app uses the driver’s phone to detect whether the car is exceeding 4 miles per hour via the phone’s GPS system.

At this point the app locks the device disabling calls, texts, emails and social media accounts, amongst other distractions. It can also monitor the speed the car is travelling at and the time spent driving. The company already has a similar product available to fleet users as part of its telematics systems to help companies and drivers to comply with legislation.

The maker has announced that the new app could be available as early as May 2016. Sales director, Steve Arscott explained, ‘It’s called distraction prevention, we’re approaching younger drivers because they’re the ones most likely to be glued to their phones.’ There will be a charge for the service and it will work alongside another of their apps called Guardian, which allows parents to monitor where their youngster is and whether they have been speeding – just as companies can do with their fleet drivers.

The company is optimistic that they will find an insurance company to partner up with, providing users with a rebate on their policy. The Guardian app can be extended to non drivers for worried parents who want to know where their off spring are. I’m sure it will lead to some very interesting debates between parents and children! By Graham Hill

Did you know that 80% of traffic lights could be scrapped without any detrimental affect on traffic flow? So says a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). They could be replaced by filter-in-turn or all-way give way layouts at junctions (no I haven’t a clue either).

According to the report if we ditched all the unnecessary traffic lights we would avoid unnecessary delays and if this saved 2 minutes per trip it is estimated that the move would save the economy £16 billion a year. The study found that the number of traffic lights had increased by a staggering 25% since 2000.

In addition the report suggested that many bus lanes, cycle lanes, speed cameras and parking restrictions should go also – wow I’m with them on these thoughts. Cities in Germany and the Netherlands have already ditched 80% of their traffic lights successfully and the IEA believes that we could do the same.

The IEA finishes by saying, ‘The affect of these measures puts an enormous burden on the UK economy, It also imposes huge costs on road users, tax payers and communities.’ And I for one agree! By Graham Hill

I recently reported that the Government is planning to scrap large numbers of sets of traffic lights as they seem to slow down traffic flow rather than improve it. Taking things one step further Transport for London (TfL) have been experimenting with removing central lane markings on busy streets around Croydon and Haringey.

Studies carried out during the experiment has shown that average speed has reduced by 13%. They have concluded that fewer road markings improve safety by making drivers more cautious and aware of their surroundings. The report stated that it has been found that a drop in average speed of just 1 mile per hour is associated with a 5% reduction in accident frequency.

TfL is not the only authority to remove centre lines. Apparently similar schemes have been introduced in Norfolk, Wiltshire and Derbyshire. In fact in Norfolk, Tracy Jessop, assistant director for Highways and Transport at Norfolk Count Council, said ‘We’ve been removing centre white lines for at least 15 years in locations that have the right characteristics and where there is community support.’

Personally, like Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, I think this is a dangerous move. When you drive along a road and you see bits of tree strewn all over the place you sense danger and slow down accordingly, the same would apply if suddenly you had no guidance as to where the centre of the road is, people don’t slow down because the road is safer, they slow down because they sense danger – in this case not without reason. By Graham Hill

In the town in which I live they have been building houses like they are going out of fashion. Virtually every piece of free land is being built on which I guess is pretty good news, especially if you’re a first time buyer. But the downside is that each new development needs electricity, water, phone and sewage facilities which means roads have to be dug up.

This in turn means that temporary traffic lights are erected and currently at the end of my road is a set of 4 way lights. As you can imagine I can wait what seems like 10 minutes to get out of the end of my road. I then have at least 1 if not more sets of temporary lights to contend with before I reach my destination elsewhere in the town.

My complaint isn’t that we have temporary traffic lights but that no bugger ever seems to be working on the bit of road that the lights are protecting, especially at weekends. As a result the Government is going to take action. They plan to fine local councils and utility companies £5,000 a day for road projects left unattended at weekends that unnecessarily inconvenience motorists.

So work would have to continue at weekends or the roadworks lifted at weekends until work resumed on the following Monday. Also fines will be imposed when lights are left in place after work has been completed. Arguing against this Peter Box, a spokesman for the Local Government Association, said that there are often reasons why roadworks are left unattended, for example when concrete has been laid it takes time to dry.

He can see that if the rules come into force people will be employed at weekends to watch concrete dry rather than receive a fine. As a final word, before you get over excited about driving freely around at the weekends the rules will only apply to A roads and not rural B roads or residential streets – damn. By Graham Hill

If you are one of those who uses a mobile phone whilst driving without a Bluetooth hands free kit be prepared for extra points on your licence and an increased fine if you get caught.

New proposals from the Department for Transport (DfT) will increase the number of points to 4 which means that under the totting up rules if you get caught 3 times you will automatically lose your licence, previously you had to be caught 4 times.

After seeing an increase in accidents involving drivers using mobile phones whilst driving the Government has decided to take action. Not only will the points increase to 4 but the fixed penalty fines will increase to £150 from £100. HGV drivers will see their points increase to 6 if caught using a mobile phone whilst driving.

Most new cars come with Bluetooth so yet another reason why motorists should lease their cars – well what did you expect me to say? By Graham Hill

So there I was driving towards Croydon in South London on the A23. For those who know it the traffic lights by the big Tesco store. The road is a funny arrangement, two lanes continue towards Croydon but in the outer lane you can filter off right.

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The car in front was in the outer lane signalling right so I pulled alongside on his left to continue on. We were both coming up to the traffic lights. Suddenly he obviously decided he wanted to go straight on after all and without warning started to pull into the side of my car.

In the split seconds I had to think I moved to my left, he continued to move over. I now had a few choices as he clearly hadn’t seen me. I could brake hard, in which case there was a good chance he would still run into the side of my car. I could toot and remain alongside in the hope that he would swerve to miss me. Or, as I did, I accelerated out of harm’s way.

The downside was that the cameras flashed from all directions and I ended up with a speeding ticket. Under normal circumstances I would have challenged it but this was Croydon and anyone that knows the Met. operating in Croydon knows that you are wasting your time.

So I have chosen to go on one of the driver re-training courses. Purely for investigative reasons of course, so early in the new year I’ll report back as to what the experience was like. I’m told that it is a real eye opener! Watch this space. By Graham Hill

We all know the dangers that we face as motorists following a heavy snowfall. People slow down and drive much more carefully as they tend to do when they see the temperature on their dashboard drop to about zero with the threat that there could be ice about.

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But a bit of heavy rain seems to make little or no difference to the way we drive. This had led to more serious accidents in heavy rain than in any other weather conditions. According to Government figures the number of serious accidents each year correlate with the months when we have seen the heaviest rainfall.

The report compared the month by month casualty totals for pedestrians, cyclists, motorcycle users and car occupants between 1997 and 2012 then matched these figures with average UK monthly rainfall and temperature figures for the same period. The results showed that the highest months for precipitation (rain sleet and snow) increased the likelihood of serious injuries.

The main months were April, June, July, August September and November. Strangely higher than average temperatures in December led to more serious injuries for motorists (wonder if this had anything to do with fog that seems to have been ignored – duh).

The findings suggested that heavy snow and ice are not such regular occurrences whereas rain is something we get used to throughout the year so we  don’t really change our driving styles. At this point they then started to compare years when the months in question had ‘normal’ weather conditions with the months in other years when the weather was considerably wetter and they found that many more deaths occurred across the board with pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists and car drivers all being impacted.

So I guess the message here is that you should not take rain for granted and treat the weather conditions in the same way as you would treat snow and ice – with greater caution! By Graham Hill