Road worker taken to hospital after being hit by car

A road worker was taken to hospital with a leg injury after being struck by a car on the A56 in Lancashire last week.

The incident took place at Rising Bridge roundabout near Haslingden where a £4.5 million road improvement scheme is being implemented.

The roundabout had just been closed for the night as part of the project when a driver arrived on the scene and attempted to drive through by removing cones.

When one of the road workers intervened to make the driver aware that the road was closed, the driver shouted abuse at him and sped through the roadworks, striking the worker’s leg.

The car was then driven further into the roadworks towards machinery and other road workers. The driver swerved onto a grass verge to get through and collided with a contractor’s flatbed truck before driving off.

The car registration was reported to Lancashire Police which is now investigating the incident.

Alan Shepherd, Highways England’s regional director in the north west, said: “Our workers routinely face verbal abuse from drivers as they do their job and shockingly this led to one of them being injured earlier this week.

“Road workers are trying to do a difficult job to improve drivers’ journeys and often work at unsociable hours overnight when traffic levels are at their lowest. No-one should have to suffer this kind of abuse just for doing their job, and I hope drivers who have been abusive to road workers or attempted to drive into roadworks in the past will reconsider their attitudes as a result of this incident.”