Onrush of Highway Projects Cues Safety Push

It’s been hard to miss the Arkansas highway safety campaign during the last few months.

If you watch local television, you might have seen the ad where a voice-over challenges people on the street by asking how many car crash deaths are acceptable statewide each year — to which each person answers with a number — and then asking how many fatalities are acceptable in their own family — to which each answers “zero” or “none.”

On the radio, you have probably heard at least a few “Click it or Ticket” and “Drunk Driving: Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” public service announcements.

The aggressive campaign, which launched Jan. 28, is in response to a push from the federal government, accompanied by grant money for programs, to promote driver safety.

The slogan is “Toward Zero Deaths.”

“It’s not a new concept, but I’m excited to see it come to Arkansas,” said Teresa Belew, Arkansas Health Department Injury and Violence Prevention section chief. “The campaign doesn’t mean that there will ever be zero car crashes, but it means nobody has to die.”

And Belew believes “it’s a winnable battle.”

Educating the public is just one of the many moving parts involved in the state’s comprehensive plan that also includes engineering, enforcement and emergency services. In 2013, the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Arkansas State Police and the health department crystallized these initiatives in the Arkansas Strategic Highway Safety Plan.

Primary emphases of the plan include impaired driving, distracted driving and safety restraint use. However, work zone safety is also being given some attention.

With the launch of 31 highway projects statewide, funded by money from a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2012, an emphasis on work zone safety makes sense, said Jesse Jones, AHTD division engineer for transportation planning policy.

The Arkansas State Police, the AHTD’s partner in highway safety efforts, has also made it a priority.

“It’s very important right now, because of all the construction projects, for us to support the highway department and give the issue the attention it needs,” said Bridget White, highway safety coordinator for the Arkansas State Police.

White said work zone safety goes hand-in-hand with one of the major emphases of the Toward Zero Deaths campaign: distracted driving.

The Arkansas State Police ran a television ad in March warning Arkansans that using a cellphone in a work zone is a crime and urging them to pay attention.

 

Places of Business

In addition to educational efforts, the highway department has been reviewing work-zone policies and developing new plans in partnership with the Arkansas chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, a champion of the work-zone-safety cause.

In April, the AGC published a study that showed 45 percent of contractors reported at least one crash in a construction zone during the past year. And, more often than not, if someone is killed, it’s a driver or passenger, not a construction worker.

For Richard Hedgecock, Arkansas AGC executive vice president, protecting the public is essential, but he can’t ignore the effect on his workers.

“This issue is clearly very important to our people. Work zones are their place of business. Imagine if you were sitting at your desk and you had tons of steel whizzing past you, and the driver was on the phone, eating a burrito, putting on makeup — or maybe all three,” Hedgecock said.

As to the effect work-zone wrecks or fatalities have on contractors’ bottom line, Hedgecock did not deem it an important factor.

“Obviously, our only concern is the health and safety of the driving public and the workers inside these work zones,” he said. “Any fiscal losses would come from lane closures, possible equipment replacement [or] possible insurance rate increases, but all of it would be relatively minimal and pale in comparison to the human loss.”

However, the AGC poll shows contractors experience economic loss via lost work days. Twenty-five percent of contractors surveyed reported that work-zone crashes have forced them to temporarily shut down construction. And, in 38 percent of the cases, the shutdowns lasted two or more days.

 

 Proactive Protection

The AHTD has created a website, IDriveArkansas.com, that maps out all the construction zones in the state, so drivers can be aware of their locations before they hit the road.

May 9, IDriveArkansas was one of five entities throughout the country to earn recognition as a State Innovation of the Year from the StateScoop awards, chosen by 50,000 online voters.

However, regardless of state and nationwide efforts, some feel more can be done, and some contractors have taken the matter into their own hands.

For example, Nabholz Construction Corp. worked proactively to temporarily lower the speed limit from 55 to 45 in a work zone stretching 6.6 miles on U.S. Highway 62 in Rogers, where the company is widening and adding to the road, said Greg Fogle, president of Midwest operations. 

And this was not an easy task, Fogle said. Although the company had support from the state police and highway department, it was not until Nabholz enlisted help from Rep. Sue Scott, R-Rogers, that the limit was finally lowered.

Nabholz is fairly new to the road construction game, having only been doing the work for six or seven years, Fogle said. However, they have been able to identify speeding as the biggest safety issue.

Lowering the speed limit doesn’t prevent the problem, but it should slow down drivers some, Fogle said. “If the speed limit is 55, they’ll go 65. If the speed limit is 45, they’ll go 55.”

Police presence, however, greatly increases the odds drivers will follow the speed limit, he added. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office has posted up deputies to help control the speeding, but they can’t be there all the time.

For times when the work is close to traffic lanes, Nabholz felt bound to begin placing spotters a few feet up to the road. These employees have radios and warn the workers of any speeders or distracted drivers headed their way. 

So far, there have been no accidents on the work zone for the $23-million project, to be finished in September 2015. But Fogle can’t help but feel like it’s only a matter of time. “There have been many near-misses,” Fogle said. “Screeching tires happen often.”

But Fogle works hard to prevent it. Nabholz holds a safety meeting, first-thing, every day. There are also always meetings before switching tasks, and safety points are touched on then, he said.

Nabholz also goes above-and-beyond what’s required by law to indicate a work zone. It uses Jersey (concrete) barriers when necessary, erects plenty of road signs, and uses orange flags and bright, blinking lights to warn of work, Fogle said. Crew members wear brightly colored shirts/vests as well. 

 

‘We Can Do Better’

Although safety is at the forefront of awareness issues, data show highways are actually safer now than ever before. Highway safety experts are crediting heightened public awareness of safety issues for the improvement.

Specifically, work-zone fatalities are down, both statewide and nationally.

In Arkansas, there were 11 deaths related to work-zone crashes in 2012, compared to 53 in 2006, according to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In the U.S. there were 609 deaths related to work-zone crashes in 2012, compared to 1,004 in 2006.

However, Arkansas is still above the national average for fatality rates, both within and outside work zones.

“We’ve seen great progress, but we can do better,” Belew said.