Industry leaders are set to launch a hard-hitting poster campaign in a drive to cut the number of accidents on site,

Developer Stanhope and contractor Bovis Lend Lease have hired branding consultant Firedog to research the campaign, which they hope will be applied throughout the industry. The companies said a tough health and safety message was needed to replace the “irresponsible and confusing” warnings currently displayed on sites.

Peter Rogers, Stanhope director, said the industry’s warning system was in urgent need of overhaul. He said: “At the moment, you walk on to a building site and are confronted with a plethora of health and safety signs, all different colours and types. It’s so confusing that people can’t take in the warnings.”

One option under consideration is to use actual accident photographs to hammer home the health and safety message to workers. The campaign organisers have drawn inspiration from the graphic “Kill your speed” campaign for safe driving, as well as a recent Bovis project that displayed children’s posters with slogans such as “Daddy, please come home tonight”.

Rogers said: “The designs need to be tough to get the message across. I’m sick of going on site and seeing formal warnings plastered across walls. If signs are ignored, workers may not be going home in the same condition as they arrived at work in the morning.”

The move by Stanhope and Bovis came as Willmott Dixon launched its own poster campaign to encourage the correct use of ladders on site. The poster (left), which the contractor is making available unbranded for other firms to use, shows a wheelchair beneath the slogan “It could be you”.

A Willmott Dixon spokesperson said that the hard-hitting message had a strong impact on workers. He said: “The design has gone down a storm on site.”