Construction Accident Newsroom

Fatal Occupational Injuries At Road Construction Sites

During the 1995 to 2002 period 844 workers were killed while working at a road construction site

1.  More than half of these fatalities were attributable to a worker being struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment. 
Fatal workplace injuries at road construction sites were first identified as a separate category in the Bureau of Labor
Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) in 1995. Since that time, overall workplace fatalities have
generally declined, but fatalities at road construction sites have fluctuated, staying in the low 100’s since 1998.

Workplace fatalities that occur at a road construction site typically account for 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent of all workplace fatalities annually. A number of safety measures exist for road construction sites. For instance,
the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices provides guidance
ranging from the types of signs to use at a road construction site to the proper use of rumble strips.

2.  In addition, the Federal Highway Administration offers tips for motorists on traveling safely through road construction sites.

3.  As fatal work injuries at road construction sites continue to account annually for a large number of fatal occupational injuries, it becomes even more important to determine the types of workers involved in road construction site fatalities and the events that precipitate the fatalities.

4. What is a road construction site?

There are various definitions of what constitutes a road construction site. According to the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, a road construction site includes, “road construction workers and vehicle occupants fatally injured in work zones. Work zones include construction, maintenance, and utility work on a road, street, or highway.” The Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices gives this definition, “A work zone is an
area of a highway with construction, maintenance, or utility work activities. A work zone is typically marked by signs,
channelizing devices, barriers, pavement markings, and/or work vehicles. It extends from the first warning sign or highintensity rotating, flashing, oscillating, or strobe lights on a vehicle to the END ROAD WORK sign or the last TTC [temporary traffic control] device.”

5.  In this report, only fatal work injuries that occurred at road construction sites as defined by CFOI are included in the analysis. Fatal work injuries at road construction sites were identified in two ways. First, all occupational fatalities that were coded as having occurred at a road construction site were included.

6.  Next, the remaining CFOI record set was searched for key variables that might indicate that a fatal work injury did indeed occur at a road construction site, but was not coded as such. These variables include:

• Keywords. Records with narratives containing variations on the following words were examined zone, construction site, worksite, pedestrian, road construction, road site, flag, cone, road crew, highway construction, street construction,
barrel, manhole, road repair, painting line, pothole, and sewer.

• Industry. All records in which the decedent was employed in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 1611 Highway and Street Construction; or SIC 1622 Bridge, Tunnel, and Elevated Highway Construction; and where the fatality occurred on a roadway were examined.

• Occupation. All records in which the decedent was employed, per the U.S. Census Bureau Occupation Codes, as a construction laborer (869), operating engineer (844), or paving, surfacing, and tamping equipment operator (594),
and where the fatality occurred on a roadway were examined.

• Worker activity. All records in which the decedent was, as classified by the CFOI worker activity codes, directing or flagging traffic (150); walking behind a vehicle (162); or resurfacing, blacktopping, etc. (140); and where the
fatality occurred on a roadway were examined.

• Source and secondary source. All records in which the source or secondary source of the fatal work injury, as classified by the Occupational Injury and Illnesses Classification System, was construction, logging, and mining
machinery (codes 3200 to 3299) and where the fatality occurred on a roadway were examined.

• Event. All records in which the decedent was killed, as classified in the Occupational Injury and Illnesses
Classification System, by being struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment and where the fatality occurred on a roadway were examined. Records found through this key variable search deemed to have occurred at a road construction site (per the CFOI definition), but not coded as road construction, were recoded for this report.

7.  Stephen Pegula is an economist in the Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions, Bureau Limitations of the data. The consistency of the application of the road construction site location code in CFOI could affect the data used for this analysis. An examination of the CFOI narratives shows that the road construction site location code was applied more rigorously later in the study period.

8.  More cases in need of recoding were found in the early years of the study than in the latter years. These different applications of the code may skew the data; that is, the increase in fatal work injuries at road construction sites over time may be partly due to the more rigorous application of the location code in the latter years of the study period.country’s roads will mean that more road construction sites will be needed. To better protect workers, the Federal Government
has taken steps to improve safety in work zones. For example, in 2001, the National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH) published “Building Safer Highway Workzones:

Measures to Prevent Worker Injuries From Vehicles and Equipment.

In addition, the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse was created in February of 1998 to improve
safety in highway work zones.

This clearinghouse provides access to data, training, and safety information for workers at road construction sites.sites, and 10 percent and 12 percent of workplace fatalities to all workers.

In terms of age, approximately 70 percent (594) of the decedents were between the ages of 25 and 54. Workers
under age 25 made up 10 percent of fatal work injuries incurred at a road construction site and 11 percent of fatal
work injuries overall. Workers age 55 and older accounted for 20 percent of the fatal work injuries incurred at a road
construction site and 22 percent of workplace fatalities overall. Workers killed at a road construction site were
largely working for wage and salary; approximately 96 percent (811) of the decedents were wage/salary workers,
while only 4 percent were self-employed.

For overall workplace fatalities from 1995 to 2002, 80 percent of the decedents were wage/salary workers
and 20 percent were self-employed.