What can be done to improve road worker safety?

Highways England last week published some shocking statistics: every month, there are approximately 175 collisions between vehicles and roadworks in England alone. One infrastructure and construction business, Amey, reported 753 incidents across 2019, with one of their works vehicles being hit every four months on average.

The picture in the US is similar: in 2018, the latest year for which we have data, there were 123,000 work zone crashes, a quarter of which resulted in one or more injuries, the net result of which was 755 deaths. It's no wonder that road construction is one of the most dangerous professions for US workers.

But what's to be done? It's inevitable that an environment with vehicles traveling at speed, and particularly large trucks, will be dangerous for vulnerable workers. But the statistics we're seeing right now are not inevitable. Injury and fatality numbers can be reduced - and here's how.

Planning and Signage

Some trivia for you: one of the lesser-known Vienna Conventions sets out a series of international rules governing road sign usage, and it's been adopted wholesale by 68 countries spanning Europe, Asia, and Africa. Interestingly, neither the UK nor US is among them. Instead, both have their own signage norms (see here and here respectively).

But getting the correct signage in place for complex construction works or work zones over a large area isn't as easy as knowing what to put where.

In the UK, anyone wishing to disrupt traffic needs to apply for either a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) or a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) from their local Highway Authority. Costs for obtaining these traffic orders can easily spiral into the thousands of pounds, but the regulations governing their issue are consistent across England and Wales, and differ only slightly for Scotland.

Not so in the US. In some jurisdictions, those wishing to apply for work zone permits must fill out a paper form and email it across to the relevant agency. In others, there are digital forms; in still others, companies are required to call the agency.

Compliance failures are common; one example is when those undertaking works receive approval for a parent permit, giving them initial approval to carry out works within a wide time-frame, but then for various reasons neglect to inform the agency of specific road works on specific dates, i.e. by not getting a child permit or calling when work zones have been initiated or finished. Sometimes, no permit is applied for at all. All this means that road agencies may not even be aware that works are happening, particularly on rural roads.

That in turn poses a risk to both drivers and workers. If road agencies don't know about works on their networks, they might allow other organizations to create nearby work zones that existing works commissioners don't know about. They may also fail to impose or create signage for a restricted speed zone, which has the potential to be lethal for drivers and workers alike.

Perhaps most importantly, they'll be unable to support works planners in creating relevant signage and warnings in advance of the works, so local residents and others familiar with the affected section of the road may be unprepared for diversions or works that appear overnight. All these issues risk putting workers in harm's way, and contribute to the fatality rates we discussed earlier.

So what's the answer?

Complex problems often have simple solutions. In the UK, a number of service providers exist to help contractors and other parties obtain traffic orders, but these come with their own costs and administrative overheads. In the US, thanks to the lack of consistency between states, there are very few cross-jurisdictional agencies to perform the same function.

This creates a previously unforeseen role for technology. Software that can help road agencies and works contractors create signage plans, apply for permits, and maintain compliance has never been more important: making these processes easier via digitisation removes several barriers to their completion, meaning work zones are better coordinated between the relevant parties, with better compliance with safety best practice and improved visibility of restrictions to drivers, all contributing to lower risk to those on site.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the role of tech solutions has become even more apparent. Unlike those of us in 'office jobs,' road workers and construction staff cannot work from home, and stringent safety protocols have been implemented across the board. But here at one.network, we've seen road traffic tick steadily back up towards (and above) pre-lockdown levels, and it's becoming clear that the brief period of enhanced road worker safety that lower levels of travel created is almost over.

Forward-thinking contractors, utility companies, and local government institutions have already capitalised on reduced traffic levels to implement software solutions that optimise for worker safety, but there's still time to reap the benefits of lower road usage - particularly in the US, during the looming post-Thanksgiving lockdowns that so many jurisdictions are evaluating.

If you're interested in works planning and communication software, why not come and say hello?