Workers at the Highways Agency have reported plastic bottles full of urine being thrown at engineers by drivers who have suffered long delays because of roadworks.
In other cases, glass bottles have been thrown from speeding vehicles at workers and drivers have even stopped to argue with anyone they see wearing a fluorescent jacket at the roadside to blame them personally for the delays.
One engineer told Fleet News: ‘We have to carry out maintenance work for safety. When there have been large delays, drivers have been known to urinate in plastic bottles, then throw them at our teams as they pass.
‘I have had drivers pull on to the hard shoulder to shout at me, even though I have been miles from the actual roadworks. They just get angry because of the delays.’
Drivers have also been involved in so-called ‘dirty protests’, cleaning out their cars during delays and throwing rubbish on the carriageway or leaving it on the hard shoulder. The engineer said this behaviour only served to create more delays. He said: ‘When the traffic starts moving again, all this rubbish ends up across the carriageway and people wonder why we have to close it again, but we have to clear the debris because it is dangerous.’
He added that the lane closures were often to clear debris thrown from passing cars on to the hard shoulder and central reservation in the first place.
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