Work Zone Data

Worker Fatalities and Injuries at Road Construction Sites

Data regarding highway worker fatalities at road construction sites are available from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), US Department of Labor.¹ BLS defines a “road construction site” as a location of construction, maintenance, and utility work on a road, street, or highway.² CFOI data are collected from each state, the District of Columbia, New York City, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. These data are extracted from fatality and injury reports provided to BLS and are only as accurate as the data included in those reports. It is possible that some fatalities and injuries occurring at road constructions sites were not recorded as such, and so would not be included in these statistics.

Between 2011 and 2020, fatal worker injuries at road construction sites from all causes have ranged from 105 to 143 per year. Meanwhile, the percentage of all worker fatalities nationally that occur at road construction sites has ranged between 2.3 and 2.9 percent. The trends for both have been relative constant over this time period.

Types of Events Resulting in Highway Worker Fatalities at Road Construction Sites

Although 2020 data on all types of fatal highway worker injuries at road construction sites is somewhat incomplete, data from prior years (2017-2019) indicate that three-fourths of all worker fatalities at road construction sites are the result of a) motor vehicle crashes where the worker is the driver or a passenger (29 percent), or b) a worker on foot who is struck by a motor vehicle (45 percent). Falls/slips/trips, struck by objects or equipment, caught in/between objects or equipment, and electrocutions collectively were responsible for the remaining one-fourth of highway worker fatalities at road construction sites.

Looking at long-term trends, the percentage of worker fatalities at road construction sites that involve a worker on foot being struck by a vehicle generally decreased from 2011 to 2015 but has been increasing since then. In 2020, more than half of the highway worker fatalities at road construction sites were of this type. It is not known how many of the workers on foot were struck by motorists versus struck by construction vehicles. It is also not known what specific activities the workers were doing at the time of the incident (putting up or taking down signs or channelizing devices, surveying, paving, etc.)

1. Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. Accessible at https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm#2018.

2. Pegula, S. Fatal Occupational Injuries at Road Construction Sites. In Monthly Labor Review, December 2004, pp. 43-47.