As the safety director of a pavement striping organization, Kurt Shea is no stranger to the dangers distracted driving poses to road crews. His team uses strobe lights and arrow boards to notify drivers of their presence. 

However, if drivers are not vigilant when passing crews, it can lead to sudden braking, swerving, or potentially deadly work zone crashes. 

“You are putting faith and hope in the motorists that they are attentive,” Shea told ARTBA. “We can throw our hands up in the air and say, ‘it is what it is,’ or we can be innovative and find new technologies.”

This mix of defeat and hope is familiar  to any construction crew on the road. Recent reports state that nearly half of America’s deadliest jobs are in the construction industry. The data shows that 12 of the 25 most dangerous jobs, as measured by the rate of people who die on the job, are in the construction industry, including highway maintenance workers.

Building roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels, and maintaining infrastructure, work  comes with its own unique hazards. Work zones are necessary for maintaining and upgrading the country's roadways, but they can unintentionally be a recipe for chaos. As the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) states, "work zones are characterized by traffic pattern changes, narrowed rights-of-way, the presence of construction workers, and work vehicles frequently entering and leaving construction areas." These activities can result in crashes, injuries, and fatalities.

Drivers encounter a surge of new information when entering a work zone. If they’re suddenly confronted with unfamiliar conditions, they only have a matter of seconds to react. When a driver is distracted, that reaction time is delayed further. This poor decision can lead to a completely avoidable work zone collision. 

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Construction crews aren’t safe working on the road 

Drivers are more distracted than ever. They text, talk on the phone, eat a quick breakfast on the road, chat with passengers, fiddle with the radio, and more. Cars themselves are distracting, too. Modern gear shifts and in-vehicle infotainment centers have become increasingly  complicated, potentially taking the driver's eyes off the road for just a few moments too long. If said driver is approaching a work zone, it can lead to tragic consequences.

Move Over laws were created to prevent work zone collisions like these. These laws prompt drivers to slow down and move over to allow safe clearance for any road workers and vehicles on the road. Every state, along with Washington, D.C., has their own version of Move Over laws that protect roadside construction job sites. 

Despite ongoing efforts, drivers continue to operate vehicles while distracted, leading to frequent work zone collisions. According to the National Safety Council, 891 people were killed and 37,701 people were injured in work zone crashes in 2022. These deaths and injuries are completely preventable.

Construction crews are always working on the roads, where unpredictable weather conditions and changing traffic patterns make the work inherently dangerous. In May of 2024, the Association of General Contractors reported that sixty-four percent of highway contractors experienced motor vehicle crashes in their construction work zones over the past year.

“Bad driving behavior and lax work zone safety laws don’t just put construction workers at greater risk,” said Jeffrey Shoaf, Chief executive officer of Association of General Contractors. “Our new data shows that drivers and their passengers are in even greater danger from highway work zone crashes.”

When a worker is injured on the job, there are hospital bills, investigative costs, litigation fees, workers' compensation, and short or long term disability costs to consider. Additionally, if a vehicle or asset is also damaged during a collision, the financial impact can be significant. 

In the worst-case scenarios, people are killed in these collisions. When that happens, construction companies face the most tragic consequence of all — telling an employee’s family their loved one will not be coming home. 

A devastating consequence like this may come about because a driver couldn’t wait until they were done driving to take a call or read a text message. The fallout from a work zone collision is felt nationwide and can linger for years. 

Distracted driving can result in work zone collisions 

Construction crews are already exposed and incredibly vulnerable when they're doing work on the road. Distracted drivers increase that risk tenfold. The following statistics speak for themselves:

• In the U.S., one work zone fatality occurs for every 4 billion vehicle-miles of travel and every $112 million worth of roadway construction expenditures.
• In 2022, there were an estimated 96,000 work zone collisions — around 37,000 ended in injury, with an estimated 891 fatalities.
• In 2022, 59% of work zone fatalities happened in a construction zone.
• Since 2010, work zone deaths have increased 52%, but have decreased 7% in 2022. 

Those collisions have an economic impact as well. Work Zone Safety estimates $36 billion in comprehensive societal crash costs in work zones, along with reporting that 10 percent of national roadway congestion is estimated to be due to work zones.

These numbers are alarming. But they're also a sobering reminder of the deeper issue at hand — work zone collisions have a significant impact on the construction workers just trying to do their jobs.

Construction workers’ stories from the road

Most people don’t have to worry about their physical safety at their workplace. But for  construction workers, an open and exposed work zone along the highway is their office. Their safety depends on factors like message boards, orange barrels, attenuators and other visual alerts. But those analog alerting tools on their own are not enough to keep construction crew members safe on the job. 

For example, in May of 2024 the state of Michigan reported a spike in work zone crashes over the past year. The state saw 7,237 work zone crashes, resulting in 1,896 work zone injuries and 17 fatalities in 2023. Speeding was a common cause of these collisions. 

"Speeding is a common behavior we're observing and it's a significant contributor to accidents," said James Lake, MDOT North Region Communications Specialist told the Petoskey News-Review. “This is their workplace. Everyday they come out here they are working in close proximity to traffic and they hope they make it home safe every night.”

The state of Missouri saw a similar spike. KRCG News reported 35 fatalities stemming from work zone crashes in 2023,  the highest number in Missouri's history. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) reported that distracted driving contributed to 588 work zone crashes and five of those fatalities. MoDOT also stated that work zone vehicles were hit 63 times in 2023 — that's an increase of 27 from 2022.

“These protective vehicles are the only thing between our workers making road improvements or repairs and the traveling public. Keeping everyone safe is our number one priority,” MoDOT Highway Safety and Traffic Engineer Nicole Hood told KRCG News. “When you see flashing lights and arrows, pay attention, slow down and move over.”

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) faced  similarly alarming circumstances in April of 2024. In just one week, WSDOT crews dealt with eight crashes.

WSDOT told KOMO News the number of fatal crashes in work zones doubled last year compared to 2022. Ten crashes in 2022 were fatal. Officials said many of those crashes are preventable.

“In the top three factors of the collisions are following too closely excessive speed, and then inattention or distracted driving,” WSDOT Spokesperson Aisha Dayal said. “Again, they’re all things that the public can avoid and that are preventable, including not driving impaired.”

Digital alerting can reduce hard-braking events by 80 percent

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There will always be an element of risk for construction workers on the road. Your crews deserve well-thought-out safety initiatives to ensure they're protected from injury and fatality due to preventable collisions. Implementing a digital alerting system is an immediate and cost-effective way to offer a critical additional layer of protection on the road. 

A digital alert is an electronic notification sent directly to a driver. These alerts inform drivers that there is a nearby or upcoming hazard, such as a construction job site on the side of the road, and they need to slow down and move over.

Analog alerting tools, like high-visibility vests and cones, on their own are no longer enough to catch a driver's attention early enough. But digital alerts cut through the noise to effectively meet drivers where they are with visual and auditory alerts. 

Advanced warning systems like Safety Cloud by HAAS Alert® have been proven to mitigate the risks associated with distracted driving. Drivers receive them up to 30 seconds before they come into contact with a roadway hazard. The motoring public receives these alerts through compatible in-vehicle infotainment centers and through leading navigation apps like Waze.

If a motorist is operating their car at a faster speed, these alerts can reach them up to a half-mile up from the work zone. This advanced warning can make a world of difference. 

Purdue University recently published a study to determine the impact of digital alerting-equipped queue warning trucks on hard-braking events. The goal of the study was to discover if warning drivers of upcoming work zones earlier through digital alerting would reduce hard braking events on highways. 

Researchers used 19 queue trucks equipped with Safety Cloud digital alerts. After 3 months of research and 370 hours worth of observation, the study determined that queue trucks with digital alerting decreased hard braking events by 80 percent. 

Similarly, the University of Minnesota conducted a study in 2013 to test the effectiveness of digital alerting. Data showed that when a driver receives advanced warning of an emergency vehicle in the area, there is a 90 percent reduction in the likelihood of collision between those two vehicles. 

Civilian vehicles are becoming more advanced each year. That means they’re becoming more compatible with technology like this. If digital alerting becomes more standardized across the country, that means the lifesaving message to slow down and move for work zone crews will get in front of more drivers.

Safety Cloud protects construction crews on the road every day

Legacy Traffic Management in Denver handles traffic control for various road-related activities like construction, paving, and plumbing. This means they're always on the road and well aware of the associated risks. 

"Driver behavior day-to-day is scary," said Clifton Washington, Operations Supervisor. "You got so many things going on, from people eating, to dogs on laps, to texting. There are just so many different distractions we have nowadays while being in traffic." 

With tens of thousands of work zone crashes occurring nationwide each year, Clifton finds peace of mind knowing that Safety Cloud will keep his crew safe. Having been with the company for a decade, he manages a crew of 10-20 people performing various road tasks.

"It makes me feel good that nothing goes wrong," he said. "We always want to go home the same way we came, with our arms and our legs." 

Haley Norman, part-owner of Direct Traffic Control, feels the same commitment to her crews. Her parents started the company in 1999. She can still recount fond memories of riding around to different job sites with her dad. Those early days ingrained a commitment to roadway safety in Haley. In fact, she has gone to Washington, D.C. multiple times to advocate on behalf of better roadway safety legislation. 

As of 2024, Direct Traffic Control has grown to 130 employees and multiple locations. This growth means more time on the road for crew members, making their safety a top priority for Haley.  Upon learning about Safety Cloud, she realized it was the perfect tool to enhance her crew's protection. 

“We know other friends who have lost people in tragic accidents that were completely preventable. I cannot think of a worse phone call,” Haley said. “I am so thankful we have not had that. There’s always that fear. There’s that risk in this business.”

Haley went on to say that technology like Safety Cloud is how the industry can keep more road construction crews from dying, due to collisions caused by factors like distracted driving. 

Take a look at the Safety Cloud for Work Zones guide to learn how digital alerting will help your crew put the brakes on distracted driving.

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