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Illinois Highway Worker Safety

June 8th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

The nation’s premier worker safety organization joined forces with a national coalition recently to enhance Illinois highway worker safety. Tragically, many highway workers are killed on the job each year. In addition, 20,000 highway workers are injured annually while working on street and highway construction projects.

To help protect highway workers, OSHA has picked the first week in April each year to be the National Work Zone Awareness Week. The campaign this year, “Signs for Change,” works to remind drivers that they not only need to slow down in the safety zones set up for highway workers, but they also need to use caution in these zones.

According to Edwin G. Foulke Jr., Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, “There were nearly 1,100 work zone fatalities last year — that is a tragedy. I am hopeful that campaigns like this will help reduce those numbers.”

As part of the important effort to increase awareness of the safety zones used by highway workers, OSHA has joined forces with the Roadway Work Zone Safety and Health Partners Alliance. In addition to spotlighting the need for caution near highway safety zones, together these organizations will focus on other health-related issues that highway workers face.

Foulke went on to explain, “Employees who work in highway zones have one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States and these employees need not only OSHA’s support, but the support of everyone who gets behind the wheel on a daily basis.” He added,

When it comes to highway workers, a leading cause of fatalities at work is acute trauma. Although highway workers are struck by cars, they also suffer trauma when struck by either trucks or equipment used within the construction zone. Safety agencies, along with OSHA, recommend that all workers in the highway construction industry wear a reflective vest that can be clearly seen from a distance.