Avoiding Construction Zone Accidents

Warm weather also means the start of construction season. It’ll be common for motorists to encounter construction zones with temporary orange signage, orange barrels, flaggers, decreased lanes, altered traffic routes, and lower speeds. It’s important for the safety of you, your passengers, other drivers, and construction workers to be careful when navigating construction zones.

Construction workers are vulnerable to vehicles that do not slow down in work zones and drivers who are not alert or are distracted by changing traffic patterns. Road workers often work in close proximity to passing vehicles, but cannot watch for traffic. They are busy with tasks that often carry their own risk of injury. They have to assume that drivers (and their co-workers) are watching out for them. Tragically, federal data shows that on average over 100 construction workers are killed in construction zones each year.

In reality, construction workers are not the most likely to be killed or injured in a construction zone accident. Motorists or their passengers are the most likely victims. Federal data indicates that 75% of construction fatalities annually are motorists or their passengers.

Driver-related factors that contribute to construction zone crashes include speeding, distractions (such as mobile phones and radios), inattentive driving, and aggressive driving. Driving in work zones requires motorists to be alert and to be prepared for sudden lane changes. Normal speed limits may be reduced. Traffic lanes may be closed, narrowed, or shifted. People may be working on or near the road.

The main type of work zone crash is a rear-end collision. Adequate following distance is important in avoiding such crashes. Drivers can decrease the chance of a construction zone accident if they slow down, obey road signs and flaggers, maintain a safe following distance behind other vehicles or construction equipment or vehicles, remain alert, and avoid distractions.

Road construction can be frustrating to encounter and navigate through, especially on freeways where motorists are accustomed to zipping along unimpeded from Point A to Point B. Drivers need to keep their emotions in check, calm down, and be patient when encountering a construction zone. There’s nothing that can be done about the construction zone. Getting impatient, driving aggressively, or trying to speed through it will only make things worse and could get you or someone else hurt or killed.

I also want to touch on the dangerous driving behavior that can occur in the miles before a construction zone, particularly on the freeway, as people try to make up for the time they’re about to lose once they enter the work area. Traveling well above the speed limit in the distance before the construction zone is a common way drivers try to make up for the delays caused by the construction. Even worse is when the construction eliminates lanes. People will race ahead for as long as they can, even as the travel lanes begin to dwindle, then try to cram themselves in at the front of the bottleneck caused by the lane closures at the last possible second before the remaining lane they’re in disappears. That sudden deceleration and lane change can cause that vehicle to rear-end the one in front of it, or get hit from behind when the vehicle it’s merging in front of is unprepared for the last second move and doesn’t have time to stop. Those risky behaviors should be avoided.