An Analysis of Fatal Work Zone Crashes in Texas

This report documents the data collection at and analysis of 77 fatal work zone crash sites throughout Texas from February 2003 through April 2004. The methodology used to collect the data for this project included a site analysis after notification by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) of each fatal crash. This project allowed an in-depth analysis of fatal work zone locations in Texas by supporting the collection of data regarding work zone configuration and characteristics that are generally not made available through the Department of Public Safety Crash Database or traditional police crash report forms. Based on these investigations, researchers concluded that only 8 percent of the investigated crashes had a direct influence from the work zone, whereas 39 percent of the investigated crashes had an indirect influence from the work zone. Researchers also concluded that 45 percent of the investigated crashes appeared to have no influence from the work zone (included in this subset are the 16 percent of the investigated crashes which occurred in work zones that were work zones in name only, such as work zones that consisted only of project limit signing). The crash investigations also provided unique insights into how and what characteristics of the work zones might have played some type of role in the overall chain-ofevents for each crash. Researchers utilized this information in generating a series of possible crash countermeasures to intervene in the crash chain-of-events where plausible. Researchers critiqued each countermeasure and arrived at a final list of eight strategies that TxDOT should consider adopting or pursue further with research and development efforts.