Skanska Highways workers are to be issued with body cameras to protect them from aggressive motorists in Cambridgeshire
Skanska maintains roads for Cambridgeshire County Council and is preparing to hand out the body cameras to staff shortly.
According to the Cambs Times, the initiative will begin in Cambridgeshire before being rolled out across the nation.
In comments to the BBC, a spokesman said the move was in response to “several instances where physical violence has taken place”.
Skanska’s business director, John Birkenhead, said: “On a regular basis members of our workforce are verbally abused by members of the public and that’s an industry-wide recognised problem.
“We have had incidents in Cambridgeshire which have made us decide to provide body-worn cameras to our employees.
“It seems to be an indictment on the society that we live in at the moment that everyone is in a rush.”
Birkenhead told a committee the body cameras would be delivered in the next week and staff would be encouraged to wear them.
CCTV signs will be put out to inform the public there are cameras in the area.
Birkenhead said confrontation can be caused by something “as simple as people being held up by traffic lights”.
He stated how items are thrown at workers out of the windows of vehicles as they pass by.
“The closures are only there for health and safety reasons to protect our workforce and members of the public,” he said.
“Members of the public can get a little irate and sometimes aggressive.”
Skanska is also contracted by Highways England to deliver the £1.5bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme.
