Monday, June 14, 1999

Construction zone is dangerous place for workers

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Laura Green holds her signal flag in one hand and a two-way radio in the other as she manages traffic along a single lane of Ohio 732 in Butler County. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        With highway construction season in full flower, flagger Laura Green flips her sign around from the red STOP side to the orange SLOW side for at least the 100th time in the week.

        Wearing in an orange safety vest, she quickly steps to the inside of the sign, away from the traffic.

        “You always need an escape route in case you can't get somebody stopped,” she says.

        Then she waves her hand to motion the five cars lined up on Ohio 732 in Butler County to go through the construction zone.

        A blue pickup truck and a series of other vehicles take their turn on the one-lane road, their side mirrors an arm's length away. A heavy construction truck rumbles by, close enough to feel the engine churn.

        Only the sign and a series of orange cones separate her from cars and trucks moving through the Reily area.

        Mrs. Green flips the sign back to STOP, but a blue Taurus drives into the intersection anyhow.

        “I don't know where you're going, Bub. The signal says stop,” Mrs. Green says to herself. The Taurus finally comes to a stop before backing out of the intersection.

        As a a construction site flagger for six years, Mrs. Green has seen her share of impatient motorists who have caused or nearly caused accidents.

        Early in her career, a drunken driver going about 60 mph in a white Cadillac almost hit her outside Oxford. Near Chillicothe, Mrs. Green watched a woman in a car run the sign and then stop only to be rear-ended by a van.

        Rural roads or city or suburban roads. Four-lane state highways outside of cities or two-lane roads in town. It doesn't matter where the zone is, drivers are impatient during construction-heavy summer months.

        Many don't slow down.

        Too many drivers on cell phones don't pay attention.

        And others get restless: “I've had people five cars behind the first car come around and run my stop sign,” said Mrs. Green, from Portsmouth, Ohio.

        That kind of stuff contributes to crashes and worries everyone from construction workers to people in the Federal Highway Administration.

        From 1992 through 1996, 139 highway construction workers died after being hit by a car or truck, according to the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. They accounted for 23 percent of workers killed on highway construction sites, more than any other kind of accident.

        Not just workers are at risk. In 1997, 658 workers and motorists died in work zones, though that was down from 780 killed in 1988.

        The Federal Highway Administration's goal is to reduce traffic backups and injuries and deaths in construction zones each by 20 percent. Officials say improved equipment and better designed construction zones should help.

        Drivers need to do their part, too.

        Be alert and slow down, says Rudy Umbs, chief of the safety design division for the Federal Highway Administration.

        Give yourself time to react.

        Consider:

        • A vehicle traveling 60 mph moves 88 feet per second.

        • A driver typically sees a road work sign 1,500 feet from the construction zone.

        • At 60 mph, the car or truck is in the construction area in 17 seconds.

        “As soon as they see a flag or a sign ahead, the first thing they should do is slow down,” Mrs. Green says. “People don't realize how dangerous a construction zone is.”

        Tanya Albert's “Commuting” column appears each Monday in the Metro section. Contact her at 768-8389; fax: 768-8340; mail at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202 or by e-mail at tmalbert@enquirer.com.

       

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