Construction group launches new highway work zone safety effort

Forty-four per cent of US highway contractors reported that motor vehicles had crashed into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America. As a result, association officials have launched a new national advertising and outreach campaign to urge motorists to stay alert and slow down while driving through highway work zones. Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer for the association
May 26, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Forty-four per cent of US highway contractors reported that motor vehicles had crashed into their construction work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America. As a result, association officials have launched a new national advertising and outreach campaign to urge motorists to stay alert and slow down while driving through highway work zones.


Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer for the association said that 49 per cent of contractors who reported work zone crashes on their projects said that motor vehicle operators or passengers were injured and 13 per cent of those crashes involved a driver or passenger fatality.  Highway work zone crashes also pose a significant risk for construction workers, Sandherr noted.  He said 25 percent of work zone crashes injure construction workers and 11 per cent of those crashes kill them.

Sandherr noted that the campaign will feature new radio ads that will air in dozens of cities around the country that caution drivers to be careful in highway work zones.  The ads warn drivers that speeding, texting and losing focus while in work zones aren’t worth the “nightmare” of killing workers, drivers or passengers.

“There is no meeting, email or text that is more important than the safety of workers or motorists,” said Sandherr. “It is absolutely essential for every driver to slow down, pay attention and put the phone down while driving through highway work zones.”

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • St Louis red light cameras changing driver behaviour
    November 5, 2012
    According to a new analysis of the City of St. Louis' violator-funded red-light safety camera program carried out by safety camera supplier American Traffic Systems (ATS), drivers are adopting safer driving habits by stopping at red lights. As drivers comply with the law, the risk of dangerous red-light running collisions is reduced, and streets become safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. The study reviewed nearly 350,000 red-light running violations issued in the city from the time the program bega
    Read More
  • High-mileage drivers more dismissive value of speed cameras, says survey
    July 27, 2015
    High-mileage drivers are more likely than any other type of road user to think speed cameras have ‘little or no influence’ in reducing the numbers of road casualties in the UK, according to a white paper issued by the Institute of Advanced Motorists’ (IAM) Drive and Survive division. The paper, Speed Cameras – The Views of High Mileage Drivers, also found 28 per cent of high-mileage drivers have a negative view of speed cameras – 10 per cent more than other drivers. It also found that more than half o
    Read More
  • Rhode Island installing wrong-way driver signing
    November 21, 2014
    Rhode Island Department of Transport (RIDOT) is undertaking a US$2 million project to upgrade the signing and striping at 145 locations, more than 200 actual ramps, and install detection systems at 24 high-risk areas. The systems not only alert a driver who travelling in the wrong direction, they notify police and other motorists of a potential wrong-way driver. At the two dozen high-risk areas, most in the Providence metropolitan area, new detection systems will sense if a driver has entered a highway o
    Read More
  • IBTTA’s roll-call of excellence
    September 2, 2022
    Winners of the IBTTA’s Toll Excellence Awards will be presented with their trophies during the 90th Annual Meeting & Exhibition in Austin, Texas
    Read More

Highlighted Content