Highways Agency

Be safe on our roads: Ten years of service to road users

Who are we?

The Highways Agency was created in 1994 so we were ten in 2004. We work 24 hours a day to keep the motorways and major roads running smoothly.

Our roads are vital to transport goods around the country. People need our roads to travel on holidays or to work.

We look after 6500 miles of Englands busiest and most important roads. We also help cyclists, horse riders, pedestrians and passengers

In the year we were born

• JK Rowling wrote her first book Harry Potter and the philosophers stone.
• The Nemesis ride opened in Alton Towers. At the time it was the first ride to hit the G force mark- only astronauts and jet pilots could previously experience this.
• The United States hosted the World Cup for the first time. Brazil beat Italy in the final to become the first team to win the cup four times.
• Ace Ventura-Pet detective, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Dumb and Dumber, The Flintstones and The Mask, were all released in 1994.
• The largest ever bubble gum bubble was blown. It was an incredible 23 inches in diameter.
• Shops were allowed to open on Sundays for the first time.

Why not ask your family what they were doing in 1994?

Positive Passengers

Did you know

• It is the responsibility of the driver to make sure all passengers under the age of 14 are wearing their seatbelts correctly.
• So, whoever is driving will have to pay a fine if YOU are caught by police not wearing a seatbelt.
• How can you be a smart passenger? Think of all the vehicles you travel in, list the safety features which can be found to make you as a passenger more safe.
• You can help EVERYONE in the car to travel safely. Always be alert to hazards, wherever your parents are driving you. Youll probably get there quicker!

Driven to distraction

What is a distraction? Its anything that takes the drivers hands, eyes or attention away from driving.

It could be a billboard, passengers in the car, something going on outside the car or even something as simple as trying to tune the radio. But actions like the driver changing the radio station for the passengers, while driving can lead to disaster.

So keep focused on staying safe and staying alive.

Messing with Motorways is Madness

Think about this story:

It was the second week of the Easter school break and Cassie sat slumped on the living room sofa. She let her head slide slowly from where it was propped on her hand until it came to rest on the arm of the sofa.  She lay there staring at the ceiling.

"I can't stand DIY shows" she sighed.

A short while later the front doorbell rang, Cassie didn't move, it was bound to be one of Mum's friends coming round for a coffee and a gossip.

"Coming out?"

Cassie jumped. "Div!" she shrieked. "You scared me… where to?"  Her friend Ben stood peering round the door, smiling now because he"d made Cassie jump.

"Your Mum says she doesn't mind if we go out for a ride on our bikes." Ben replied.

"I said where to not what on, stupid."  Cassie laughed as she spoke.

"How about across the bridge to the pig farm, there's loads of piglets at the moment, I know you like piglets." Ben said.

"Okay, I'll get a couple of apples for the sow." said Cassie.

Cassie and Ben set off each with one apple for the pigs.  Cassie's Mum had insisted that she wear her helmet but Cassie took it off the moment she was out of sight of her house and hid it, where she always did, under the privet hedge at number seven.

The pig farm was 15 minutes' ride away down a quiet road, past the football fields at the back of the shops, over the motorway bridge and down a short dirt track.  The two of them usually stopped at their school pond to look for frogs or frogspawn and sometimes at the playground on the edge of the football field, but today they rode straight past them.  As they crossed the motorway bridge they heard a siren in the distance.

"Bet you it's a police chase!" said Ben excitedly.

They jumped off their bikes, dropped them on the narrow footpath and ran to the centre of the bridge and peered over the barrier in anticipation of a car chase.  The siren faded quickly.

"Aww! We missed it and I bet it was going really fast." sulked Ben.

"Oh well." sighed Cassie, she rested her chin on her hands on the top of the barrier and watched the cars whiz beneath them.  "Hey, look straight down." she said, "It's weird… makes you feel odd."

"Yeah right!" Ben said, "Girls!" but he tried it anyway. " Woaa!  It does too!"

Cassie and Ben stared down at the passing cars for a minute or two.

"Fancy an apple?" said Cassie

"Thought they were for the pigs?" John replied.

"Doesn't matter." Cassie pulled out the apple from her pocket and took a bite. Ben did the same.

Five minutes later the apples were eaten and the road below was no longer of interest.  Ben looked at the apple core in his hand and took a sideways peek at Cassie who was watching some geese fly overhead.  Ben smiled and gently lobbed the apple at Cassie. It landed with a plop on her head.

"Oi!" she frowned, then laughed.  She immediately threw her own apple at Ben, he turned his back and ducked as he did so, the apple hit him on the top of his shoulders and bounced over his head and rolled across the bridge.  Ben chased the apple so that he could throw it back at Cassie. It had come to rest against a small pile of branches and logs that the farmer had yet to clear up.

"This'll get her running." Ben whispered to himself.  He picked up one of the logs and marched back to the middle of the bridge where Cassie still stood.

"Bombs away!" Ben shouted with a broad grin on his face.  Cassie looked at him and let out a giggly scream.

"Don't you dare Ben," she said.  She knew he wouldn't actually throw it at her.  Ben was still some distance from her when he stopped and launched the log in her direction.

"Incoming!!" Ben shrieked then he gasped as he realised that the throw was wonkey.  The log came down on the top of the barrier and bounced along it twice before dropping toward the road below…

A few days later, the local newspaper publishes this headline: DRIVER ESCAPES DEATH AS CHILDREN THROW OBJECTS FROM BRIDGE

If you want to report an incident like this, tell your parents, your teacher or the police as soon as possible- you could be saving someones life.

Useful links

Are you doing a school project on road safety? Here are some other useful sites to help you.

• http://www.hedgehogs.gov.uk/
• http://www.stars.sandwell.gov.uk/
• http://www.highways.gov.uk/knowledge/
• http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/arrivealive

Traffic Officers are patrolling a road near you

Traffic officers help to ease congestion and traffic jams. They help to improve journey time, so your family can get to where you want to quicker!

This means police can concentrate on other important responsibilities like catching criminals!

When and where?

In April 2004 Highways Agency Traffic Officers began patrolling Motorways in the West Midlands.

By July 2006, Traffic Officers were patrolling every motorway in England. They've helped motorists, kept the roads moving and even saved 8 ducklings!

Traffic officers work in pairs from very distinctive vehicles, 24hrs a day and 7 days a week.

You should definitely be able to spot the officers because they will be wearing bright orange and yellow jackets!

When you're in the car next time, keep a look out for them.

Did you Win?

We held a competition to design a poster for a local road safety campaign. Posters encouraged children to be 'positive passengers' and make sure everyone remembers to be safe when they are a passenger in a car.   Visit the gallery to view the best entries.