Current highway work zone safeguards may no longer be sufficient to protect crews from aggressive and distracted drivers, according to a new Associated General Contractors of America survey. That trend heightens the potential for incidents such as the March 22 crash that claimed the lives of six crew members along I-695 in Baltimore, Md.
Nearly all of the more than 900 highway construction firms surveyed by AGC and industry software developer HCSS reported that work zones are either as dangerous, or more dangerous, than they were a year ago. More than 55% of respondents had experienced work zone crashes during the past 12 months, with 28% recording incidents that resulted in injury to construction workers and 8% reporting events that caused worker fatalities.