I had a gun pulled on me - I don't want to go home and tell my mum that's what's happened on my shift.

Roadworker tells BBC Radio Suffolk about harrowing incident she experienced whilst installing traffic management.

In the interview, which first broadcast on Monday morning as part of the Breakfast show she tells BBC Radio Suffolk presenter Graham Barnard about one particular incident where she had a gun pulled on her at a petrol station directly after setting out traffic management.

Urging members of the public to Think Respect, Sinead, a Foreman for HW Martin explains how abuse is an almost nightly occurrence with incidents ranging from swearing and spitting to far more serious cases where she and colleagues are forced to lock themselves in their vehicles.

Across the UK, 80% of all road workers and other people working on the highway have reported being abused on a monthly basis.

'Constant torrent of abuse'

Steve Day, contracts manager at Go Traffic Management added: “This has a massive impact [on the mental health of people], nobody likes to go to work and find themselves subjected to a constant torrent of abuse, let alone to have this every day.”

Sian Plant, 26, has been a traffic officer for National Highways for two years and says the worst of the abuse appears to happen at night.

She said: “We get it quite often, a guy got in my face and was pushing me back. He was screaming in my face then got into his car and drove at me to try and intimidate me.

“A colleague had to press our emergency button and got the police to come and deal with the incident.

Respect our Workforce week runs from the 11th -15th March with the aim of highlighting the issues around roadworker abuse and making it an offence which is both prosecutable and socially unacceptable.