Raising safety awareness in the GWW requires rethinking 

The need for security is growing. Around the world. Ten years ago, you didn't see anyone skiing with a helmet. Now someone without a helmet on the slopes constitutes an exception and is seen as an irresponsible and reckless person. It was the same with the seat belt. I didn't wear those much as a child. Now my children start screaming when I drive off before they have their seat belts on. They don't feel safe without a seat belt. It's a great aspiration to work toward that with safety in GWW. We often hear the argument 'it's all right' or 'it's never gone wrong'. Something has happened in many areas in terms of safety with awareness. But there is still a lot of room for improvement in the industry.

Fortunately, there are several branches in the GWW that deal with safety from their own expertise. The labor inspectorate that then monitors it and all kinds of governance that contribute to that. And I think that's a very good development. We too get out of bed to ensure safety during temporary traffic measures. 

When it comes to safety awareness in infra work, there are basically three stakeholders: the one who is working, the one who in some way has a role in ensuring safety (the traffic controller, road inspector, etc.), and the road user who hasn't asked for anything but is confronted with it. All three stakeholders must be able to get from A to B or do their jobs safely. 

When I look at our own organization, we have really made great strides in recent years in terms of safety culture. We strive for a high level of safety awareness for our employees. And that means you have to make safety negotiable, in all layers of the organization. This is based on behavioral change. We must talk about safety and dare to call each other to account for unsafe behavior, without it being perceived as annoying or pedantic. Strive for maximum safety everywhere. That's where I see opportunities in the industry to learn from each other's best practices. I wish employees or stakeholders would start screaming when it's not maximally safe, just like the example of my kids with the seat belt. Or that anyone not working as safely would be looked at as crazy as that "helmetless" person on the slopes. 

My biggest nightmare is that one of our people doesn't come home at night. That motivates me to do everything I can to get safety to the highest level. Yet the issue of cost or time still often wins out over safety. One offers the 100% safely, the other cheaper and gets the job. From the client side, I think there is still a world to be won here. 

Safety awareness anno 2023 is at a much higher level than, say, 20 years ago. But we are not there yet. More and more large contractors are organizing safety days. This is partly from an intrinsic motivation and partly from an obligation in the chain. I would appreciate it if not only the buyers, KAM managers and management participate in these, but also the people on the shop floor. For example, I see very few groundworkers connecting on such days. Involve the entire organization in the topic of safety!

From the Specialist Roads Construction Section of Bouwend Nederland, we are now devising a campaign to increase safety awareness among both road users and road managers. Where does which responsibility lie and is everyone always equally aware of their own behavior in relation to safety? Are people deliberately speeding past a work zone or are they not aware of it? Last month three action vehicles were hit in one day. That does not strike me as a deliberate action. In short, there is work to be done. But it is on the agenda, it is alive and well. Raising safety awareness only sometimes requires thinking things through.