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Safety First with Overheight Integrated Solutions

For those who work on the road, safety is their biggest concern – especially as the average fatality rate for those maintaining the UK’s road network is one of the highest amongst employment sectors.

Highways Agency statistics showed that work-zone incursions are one of the most significant risks to road workers. Between 2009 and 2013, eight road workers died and 317 were injured whilst working on or near, motorways and major A roads in England.

In response to Highways England’s (previously The Highways Agency) ‘Aiming for Zero’ campaign, and customer concern for the safety of road workers, MVIS now offers the first temporary road safety portfolio of pioneering work zone safety solutions designed to keep road workers safe.

This includes Overheight for those working at height, Safelane for those working on lane closures, and Egress for road workers at exit and entry points.

Overheight

When construction work and scaffolding are introduced onto roadside work zones, overheight workers are at an increased risk of injury from high sided vehicle collisions.

Our Overheight solutions features an Intellicone Sentry Beam – a contactless sensor – which can detect movement in ‘no go areas’ from vehicles over a certain height which would possess danger to the workers should the vehicle continue.

This movement then activates a warning to alert both the driver and the workers. A message alerting drivers to their breach is displayed on a VMS unit, enabling them to turn around and find an alternative route.

Simultaneously, an audible Intellicone Portable Site Alarm sounds to alert the workers, giving them sufficient time to move out of the perceived danger area and into a position of safety.

The Sentry Beam has a line of sight for 50 metres and communicates wirelessly with an Intellicone Traffic Management Unit (TMU) controller which is fitted to a VMS. The user can control the TMU to determine how long the messages are displayed on the sign, and can also override the system to change messages should this be required.

This solution offers road workers and those working overheight, a much greater level of safety. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch at sales@m-vis.co.uk.