Are Road Construction Fatalities Decreasing?
A high percentage of the personal injury and death that occurs in road construction zones can be attributed to crashes involving drivers and workers.
Transportation incidents, such as a vehicle striking a worker or crashing into a construction site, accounted for approximately 40 percent of all workplace fatalities in 2008, a decrease from the 2,351 cases recorded in 2007.
"Moreover, fatal highway incidents declined by 19 percent to 1,149 from 2007 to 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, while road fatalities decreased throughout the country from 2008 to 2009, they increased in California", explains James Ballidis, a personal injury lawyer in the state.
Nationwide, 667 people died in motor vehicle accidents involving work zones in 2009, a 7.
4 percent decrease from 2008, a 20 percent decrease from 2007, and a 34 percent decrease from 2006, according to the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
Although thousands of new highway projects were started in 2009-a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-recent data from the U.
S.
Department of Transportation indicate that highway work-zone fatalities fell to the lowest level since 1992.
The Department of Transportation attributed the decrease to several factors: multi-million dollar work-zone safety programs implemented by the Federal Highway Administration to train more than 46,000 highway workers; improvements in work zone design; and heightened law enforcement near work zones.
In addition, the FWHA issued several new federal rules to improve worker safety, such as the requirement that workers wear high-visibility clothing.
While the national incidence of personal injury and death suffered by road construction workers fell, increases were recorded in some states.
From 2008 to 2009, the number of fatalities rose from 0 to 5 in California, according to a local lawyer.
Increases were also recorded in Florida, with 6 more deaths in 2009 than in 2008, and Arkansas, where fatalities increased from 0 to 8.
An accident that recently occurred in Palm Desert, California illustrates one of the most common ways that road construction workers are injured or killed while on the job.
A person driving on Hovley Lane struck a worker and then a construction vehicle.
The motorist and the worker were both injured in the accident.
Motorists present a great risk to road construction workers.
In a study of work zone accidents that occurred between 1995 and 2002, the U.
S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics found that more than half of the 844 fatalities suffered were attributable to a vehicle or mobile equipment striking the worker.
April marks the beginning of the road construction season in the United States.
As sites are erected along our roads and highways, we must exercise caution to protect the workers who are helping to improve our nation's transportation system.
Transportation incidents, such as a vehicle striking a worker or crashing into a construction site, accounted for approximately 40 percent of all workplace fatalities in 2008, a decrease from the 2,351 cases recorded in 2007.
"Moreover, fatal highway incidents declined by 19 percent to 1,149 from 2007 to 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, while road fatalities decreased throughout the country from 2008 to 2009, they increased in California", explains James Ballidis, a personal injury lawyer in the state.
Nationwide, 667 people died in motor vehicle accidents involving work zones in 2009, a 7.
4 percent decrease from 2008, a 20 percent decrease from 2007, and a 34 percent decrease from 2006, according to the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
Although thousands of new highway projects were started in 2009-a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-recent data from the U.
S.
Department of Transportation indicate that highway work-zone fatalities fell to the lowest level since 1992.
The Department of Transportation attributed the decrease to several factors: multi-million dollar work-zone safety programs implemented by the Federal Highway Administration to train more than 46,000 highway workers; improvements in work zone design; and heightened law enforcement near work zones.
In addition, the FWHA issued several new federal rules to improve worker safety, such as the requirement that workers wear high-visibility clothing.
While the national incidence of personal injury and death suffered by road construction workers fell, increases were recorded in some states.
From 2008 to 2009, the number of fatalities rose from 0 to 5 in California, according to a local lawyer.
Increases were also recorded in Florida, with 6 more deaths in 2009 than in 2008, and Arkansas, where fatalities increased from 0 to 8.
An accident that recently occurred in Palm Desert, California illustrates one of the most common ways that road construction workers are injured or killed while on the job.
A person driving on Hovley Lane struck a worker and then a construction vehicle.
The motorist and the worker were both injured in the accident.
Motorists present a great risk to road construction workers.
In a study of work zone accidents that occurred between 1995 and 2002, the U.
S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics found that more than half of the 844 fatalities suffered were attributable to a vehicle or mobile equipment striking the worker.
April marks the beginning of the road construction season in the United States.
As sites are erected along our roads and highways, we must exercise caution to protect the workers who are helping to improve our nation's transportation system.
Source...