Personal Injury Blog

Caltrans Focuses on Safety After Third Worker Accident Fatality

August 15th, 2011
Workers are often injured or even worse, die on the job for lack of better safety procedures.

Caltrans workers need better safety procedures to prevent workplace injuries or fatalities.

After the third worker accident fatality of Caltrans worker in less than two months, the California Department of Transportation is reminding motorists once again about the dangers to Caltrans workers when they’re working on highway construction projects.

Last week, a 52-year-old Caltrans maintenance worker was hit by a car and killed.  The man had been working on a ramp off Interstate 15.  This was the third Caltrans construction worker fatality over the past few weeks.  On 7 June, another Caltrans worker had been killed when he was struck by a car as he was working in a work zone on Interstate 8 in Imperial County.  Last month, a Caltrans worker had been killed in a trolley accident near San Diego.

Caltrans workers have been shocked enough at this recent spike in accidents involving their own to halt maintenance work.  This week, Caltrans workers across the state shut down work while they discussed safety in the wake of the recent accidents.  Across the state, work crews put down their tools, and focused on ways to increase safety.

Caltrans workers are frustrated at what they see as motorists’ recklessness and disregard for their safety.  Workers have horror stories to tell about the kind of behavior they see from motorists and truckers.  Negligent drivers have crashed through rows of cones, narrowly avoiding hitting workers working inside a zone.  Some drivers have no problems ignoring closed exit ramps, and plowing through cones.  Workers see such behavior as a lack of respect from the motoring public.

Distracted driving is one thing that Caltrans workers fear more than other kinds of behavior.  They see far too many motorists racing through a work zone while talking on a cell phone or texting.  People are doing more than just driving these days, and the risk to work zone personnel is huge.  People who are distracted while they are driving are likely to miss warning signs posted at the entrance of a work zone.

Another safety problem is speeding.  Caltrans workers say they have noticed more and more people in a hurry to get to their destination than before.  Maintenance workers using street sweepers which are slow to move, find that their vehicles are simply no match for a vehicle that is barreling through a work zone at 70 mph.

What Los Angeles car accident lawyers have noticed is that more and more people are in too much of a hurry to get to their destination than before.  Drivers need to be patient while they are traveling through a zone.  Drop speeds when you enter a zone, and maintain those speeds until you are safely out of the zone.  Switch off cell phones while driving, and avoid all distractions when you enter a work zone.

Caltrans workers work tirelessly to keep our highways safer.  It’s appalling that they are often injured worse, become a worker accident fatality for trying to do so.

 

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