Video series examines highway worker safety research

Washington – The Transportation Research Board recently published a series of videos highlighting a National Cooperative Highway Research Program analysis of highway worker safety.

Oregon State University College of Engineering faculty members John Gambatese and David Hurwitz examined safety measures and data sources used by state departments of transportation and explored findings for the following research questions:

• How do state DOTs respond when an incident with a highway worker occurs on a worksite?
• What is the current state of practice for using data to develop, implement and evaluate state DOT worker safety programs?
• How does the size and scope of a state DOT influence the agency’s highway worker health and safety programs?

“Quite a bit of work going on,” Gambatese says in a video. “All different types, going on in the daytime, in the nighttime, in the summer, sometimes in the rainy weather … and we have some safety issues. So, state DOT employees are placed in high-risk environments. Unfortunately, when we don’t control those risks to the best that we can, we do have injuries and fatalities, which we try to avoid.”

TRB administers NCHRP research in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration.

The free videos are each about an hour long.