The dangers of road construction work

While often much-maligned in everyday conversation, road construction plays a major role in keeping our state’s roads safe and in good operation. So, those who work in road construction provide society with a very important service. One would hope such workers would have as safe of a work environment as possible when doing this.

Unfortunately, construction workers can face significant safety hazards when doing road work. These can lead to accidents that have major, and sometimes deadly, consequences. This can be seen in a recent report by the Center for Construction Research and Training.

According to the report, well over 1,200 construction workers were killed at road construction sites between 2003 and 2016.

Over 500 of these road construction worker deaths happened between 2011 and 2016. And recent years have seen a trend of increases in such fatalities. Specifically, such deaths went up 43 percent between 2013 and 2016.

What type of road construction job has the highest fatality rate? According to the report, crossing guard positions hold the top spot.

The report also points to accidents involving vehicles or mobile equipment hitting workers being a major cause of construction worker fatalities at road construction sites. Such accidents were behind about half of the fatality total for the 2011 to 2016 period.

So, vehicles and mobile equipment can be a major source of safety hazards for road construction workers. This underscores how important of an issue mobile equipment safety is at construction sites. It also underscores how important it is for all drivers to act in a safe and responsible manner when going through road work zones.

When construction workers suffer harm as a result of accidents that occurred while they were doing road work, it can be critical for them to know their workers’ comp rights and what steps they can take to pursue these rights. Injured workers can go to skilled workers’ comp attorneys for advice and guidance on this.