Slow Down, Move Over For Roadside Workers (OR)

[TowNews]

Helping stranded drivers on the side of the road should not be one of America’s most deadly jobs, but it is. On average, two emergency responders, including tow workers, are struck and killed every month in the U.S. by drivers who fail to obey the law by moving over to an adjacent lane and allowing the roadside rescuers the space to operate safely, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

Roadside crashes are notably deadly for tow workers. Government data shows that tow operators are killed at a rate of almost 43 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to just three for all other industries.

 

In Oregon, 10 people were killed in crashes while outside a disabled vehicle from 2016 through 2020. Nationwide, 1,703 were killed in that same timeframe, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).

 

While all 50 States have Slow Down Move Over laws, driver awareness and compliance are inconsistent. With highway speeds often 65 mph or more, drivers may find it difficult to spot and react to incident response personnel, including tow truck drivers, police, and emergency responders.

 

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety did two different studies to see what could be done to better protect roadside workers.

 

The AAA Foundation also surveyed tow workers, emergency responders, and road maintenance workers on their experiences with roadside jobs. Of those surveyed, 60% had experienced a near miss while working at the roadside, while an astonishing 15% had survived being hit by a passing vehicle.

 

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety looked at devices and warning messages, including cones, flares, emergency flashing light patterns, and electronic variable message signs (VMS) to see which were most effective. The studies show that the odds of a driver moving a vehicle over a lane were 95% higher when VMS were used. Cones, flares, and emergency flashing light patterns led to significant lane shifts by drivers but were less effective at reducing speeds.

 

One study (here is the fact sheet) assessed the behavior of motorists passing a roadside incident with varying combinations of flares, cones, and two different light patterns: a Daytime light pattern representative of the emergency lighting currently in widespread use and a Nighttime light pattern designed to avoid masking road safety personnel working at the roadside at night. The staged incident consisted of a flatbed tow truck with the Daytime or Nighttime light pattern activated, 6 feet in front of a silver sedan with hazard flashers operating, on the shoulder of a multilane, limited access highway. Video data was processed using computer vision techniques to estimate lane occupancies and speed.

• During the day, lights on a tow truck resulted in a 25% increase in vehicles shifting lanes compared to when the truck and client vehicles were not present.
• At night, light patterns resulted in a 41% increase in lane shifts.
• Neither flares nor cones produced a significant change in lane occupancy during the day.
• When flares were added to the truck displaying lights at night, the occupancy of Lane 1 decreased significantly beyond the level achieved by the truck and lights alone. The addition of cones, however, produced only a very small additional reduction that did not reach statistical significance.

 

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