Highway Work Zone Safety Measures

By Jessie Mccafferty


Deaths of employees being hit by passing vehicles and vehicles involved in accidents make up between 40% and 50% of construction employee deaths, varying a bit from year to year. Other dangers like drop-offs, heavy machinery rollovers, power lines and accidents with power equipment have a tendency to make up the rest, with employees being struck by construction vehicles, each in a smaller amount.

When traffic causes about 50% of all highway construction worker deaths, obviously robust traffic slowing measures must be taken. Barriers and devices like speed display signs are steps in the right direction.

When driver feedback signs are utilized as traffic security devices in work zones, the speed of traffic has been shown to drop up to several miles hour. This is significant, because a reduction can slow some autos to a speed that's so much less likely to cause major injuries or fatalities. A vehicle traveling 40 miles per hour is much more likley to kill a worker than one going 30 miles per hour. Each mile per hour slower a vehicle travels means more possibility that somebody struck by that car will survive.

When road construction employees have to stand near cars or perhaps in their trail like those that hold signs and flags, slower traffic means they will have more time to move out of the way if an automobile gets closer or an accident occurs. When you use signs from TraffiCalm Systems, you can rest assured that they're highly tangible and reliable. And because they follow government traffic sign specifications so that they are the correct size and colour that drivers recognize, drivers do heed the signs and slow their cars down.

Barriers aren't unusual in work areas, but often they're the barrel-sized orange and yellow reflective barriers. These are highly visible, but they're also flexible. They're helpful for drivers because they clearly mark the perimeters of roadways and construction sectors. If there is a collision with one of those barriers, their flexible construction makes it not likely there'll be vehicle damage. But they do nothing to stop vehicles, so having the vehicles moving slower to start with is important. That's where lit signs can help.




About the Author: