Work Zone Data

Work Zone Traffic Crash Trends and Statistics

Data on fatal traffic crashes in work zones come from the Fatality Analysis Reporting Systems from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.¹ These data represent crashes coded as occurring in a work zone from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These data are extracted from law enforcement crash report forms, and as such are only as accurate as the data included in those reports. Estimates of injuries and total crashes occurring in work zones come from the NHTSA Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) and the General Estimates System (GES).²

Over the past 10 years, fatal crashes in work zones have increased from 533 in 2011 to 774 in 2020. The percent of all fatal crashes that occur in work zones has also increased slightly, from 1.8 percent in 2011 to 2.2 percent in 2020.

Over the past 10 years, work zone fatalities have increased from 590 in 2011 to 857 in 2020. This equates to more than two persons per day being killed in work zones in 2020. Approximately four out of every five work zone fatalities involve a driver of passenger of a vehicle. Meanwhile, estimated injuries in work zones have also increased, from 39,000 in 2011 to 44,000 in 2020. In 2020, this equates to approximately 120 injuries per day in work zones.

The increase in work zone fatalities and injuries over time has correlated with increased vehicular travel nationally, except in 2020 when travel dropped significantly due to the COVID pandemic.3 Conversely, the increase has not correlated with highway construction spending (normalized to 2011 dollars), which has remained relatively constant over the same time period.

Compared to fatal non-work zone crashes, fatal work zone crashes are overrepresented on urban interstates, rural interstates, and rural principal arterials and freeways/expressways.

Rear-end collision involvement is consistently higher for fatal work zone crashes than for fatal non-work zone crashes. The overrepresentation is most apparent on rural roadways.

Driver distraction contributes to fatal work zone crashes more often than to fatal non-work zone crashes. The overrepresentation is particularly evident on urban interstates and rural roadways.

Commercial motor vehicles (large trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 lbs and buses) are highly overrepresented in fatal work zone crashes as compared to fatal non-work zone crashes. In fact, commercial motor vehicles are involved in over 50 percent of fatal work zone crashes that occur on rural interstates.

¹ Fatality Analysis Reporting System. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C. Accessible at https://www.nhtsa.gov/research-data/fatality-analysis-reporting-system-fars.

² Crash Report Sampling System. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C. Accessible at https://www.nhtsa.gov/crash-data-systems/crash-report-sampling-system.

³ U.S. Vehicle Miles. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C. Accessible at https://www.bts.gov/content/us-vehicle-miles.

⁴ Total Construction Spending: Highway and Street in the United States. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo. Accessible at https://alfred.stlouisfed.org/series?seid=TLHWYCONS.