The behaviour of motorists who hurled verbal abuse at a worker at the scene of emergency road repair works has been labelled 'unacceptable.'
Work to fix a dangerous Openreach manhole cover, located at the top of the A354 Monkton Hill between Dorchester and Weymouth, has led to long delays over several days.
During the works, a Dorset Council highways worker was said to have been removed from the site after lunch due to 'abusive motorists' passing the cordon which was put in place that day.
A spokesman said reports of abusive behaviour towards highways staff has increased in recent years, and urged motorists to check their routes online before travelling, especially as there are several planned roadworks scheduled for the coming weeks.
A Dorset Council spokesman said: “We are disappointed that our employee suffered verbal abuse on Saturday afternoon while he was manually controlling the traffic lights on Monkton Hill. The lights were installed to allow traffic to safely pass a dangerous manhole cover belonging to Openreach.
“While the majority of motorists are well-mannered, unfortunately we have seen more of this kind of behaviour in recent years, for example when we’ve had to close access roads to beaches for safety reasons. It is not acceptable for our staff receive such abuse when they are not responsible for road closures, nor do they have the ability to change the situation.
“Please check online for known roadworks before setting off on a car journey and be respectful to highways staff if you find yourself faced with unexpected delays.”
Openreach, who the employer of the individual who suffered the abuse said it was made aware of the issue on Friday last week and requested emergency traffic management to protect motorists.
The council said that the engineering works were 'challenging' and involved the removal of the old defective service cover and the frame it sits in which was then replaced with a new apparatus.
Contractors made the repairs and were off the road, with all cordons and temporary traffic lights removed, at around 3.30pm yesterday. Traffic has since returned to normal.
A spokesman for Openreach said: “We were made aware that a carriageway box on the A354 had become dangerous; we requested emergency traffic management in order to make the area safe and protect motorists and their vehicles."