Michael Heduan was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to road safety.

The 60-year-old, who lives in Eastcote, works with Crossrail’s lorry drivers to train them to safely share London’s roads with cyclists and other vulnerable road users.

Mr Heduan's work has seen over 7,000 drivers trained in road safety skills and has also put cyclists in the drivers seat as part of a programme called Exchanging Places, giving them a greater understanding of the blind spots experienced by lorry drivers.

His lorry driver training programme started in November 2009 and is a one day accredited course for drivers of vehicles over three and a half tonnes.

It covers sharing London’s roads with vulnerable road users, particularly cyclists and involves hazard perception, contributory factors in collisions and the Highway Code, plus a range of topics that make drivers more aware of their responsibilities and the need to maintain a safe lorry.

"Lorries working on the Crossrail project must have specific safety kit fitted that reduce the risk of collisions in the first place.

"These lorries are checked every time they arrive at our work sites and turned away if they are not compliant. This whole area has been hard work but very satisfying when you see the high standards we created being adopted by others," he said.

As a result Transport for London brought together leaders in the construction industry to create a standard based on Mr Heduan's experience.

The former chair of governors at Haydon School in Wiltshire Lane, Eastcote, is now involved in advising HS2, among other large infrastructure projects.

Ian Brooks, chairman of the Hillingdon Safer Neighbourhoods Board congratulated Mr Heduan for his contribution to safe and sustainable development.

"I am keen to see a similar approach to corporate social responsibility be appropriately adopted by organisations operating in Hillingdon," he said.

Mr Brooks is hopeful that Mr Heduan's influence on potential lorries using local roads during the construction of HS2 will mean safer journeys and less disruption for all road users.

"A serious collision is devastating first and foremost for the people involved and their families but also means the road gets shut down for anywhere up to eight hours.

"This has a huge knock-on effect for traffic, especially if roads are already choc-a-block with regular drivers and HS2 lorries.

"Anything that puts safety systems in place to cut down the risk of collisions will be better for the whole borough," he said.