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Rebecca Goossen
Earlier this year we lost a talented member of staff, Rebecca Goossen, in a traffic accident involving an HGV. Rebecca was on her way to work when, at the corner of Goswell Road and Old Street, she was killed by a left-turning cement mixer. She was only 29 years old and is greatly missed by the office.
Rebecca is one of too many such incidents and we would like to do something to try and reduce the number of such tragic accidents. As construction professionals we have an opportunity to introduce within building contracts and preliminaries, a stipulation that will impose on contractors the need for greater safety and awareness training for HGV drivers.
There are a number of schemes such as the FORS scheme promoted by TfL which is a free to join initiative promoting driver training, including a greater awareness of vulnerable road users (particularly cyclists) as well as other incentives such as fuel economy.
We would like to propose an additional clause to be included within the standard building contract preliminaries that would stipulate that haulage companies delivering to the site should be members of similar schemes that can demonstrably improve the safety of vulnerable road users.
We have drafted a clause to be included, which we are very pleased that Davis Langdon has adopted, and would be hopeful that as many other construction professionals as possible could do the same with their standard Preliminaries and General Conditions. This would be a useful contribution to the companies Health & Safety policy and would be a positive move towards an industry-wide emphasis on the safer operation of Heavy Goods Vehicles on the roads.
Please contact Nick for further information nick.phillips@metwork.co.uk
Rebecca Goossen – memorial lecture
Metropolitan Workshop Architects and Metropolitan Police are doing a Cyclists safety session on Tuesday 10th November 12.30hrs at the Gallery on no. 75 Cowcross Street, London EC1.
There will be short update on progress from the focus group meeting on 18th June.
Lecture is free and free lunch which will be provided to all participants, but pre-booking is essential, please email Lilli lilli.hoikka@metwork.co.uk to confirm your attendance.
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