Safety Tips For Working In A Roadside Construction Zone

If you work for the streets department in your local town, are employed by the California Department of Transportation, or work for a private construction company you will want to pay close attention to the information in today’s post. Your job will likely have you working roadside construction at one time or another. Roadside construction sites are incredibly dangerous, even if they are properly secured, lighted, and barricaded from the motoring public. Our San Diego construction injury attorney would like to discuss important safety tips for working in a roadside construction zone with you.

Follow All Site Procedures

It’s in your best interest to follow all site procedures when working in a roadside construction zone. This includes safety policies that are in place to handle any issues that might crop up while working, including being involved in an accident caused by a car. If you are required to wear your personal protective equipment (PPE) at all times, make sure you follow this rule. It was created to help you and keep you safe, not annoy you.

Stay on Your Toes

You need to stay on your toes when working at a roadside construction site. You never know when a distracted or impaired driver will barrel through the barriers set up to protect you and slam into equipment or you. The closer you work to moving traffic, the more often you should turn your head and monitor the traffic headed in your direction. Keep your head on a swivel as much as possible so you can dive out of the way when the time comes.

Only Work in Protected Zones

It’s important that you only work in protected zones when on the highway. This means that you should never park your truck, get out, and start work unless there is some type of barrier between your construction zone and the motoring public. The barrier can consist of concrete, cones, signboard trucks, dump trucks and anything else that can alert the public of a construction zone. Just make sure you always work in a protected zone. If one has not been set up you should refuse to begin work until it is handled.

Wear Reflective Gear

All roadside construction workers should have reflective or bright-colored gear in their trucks. This should be donned the minute the work steps out of the truck and onto the roadway. This includes a yellow hard hat, a reflective vest or jacket depending on the weather, and even reflective pants. The more reflective apparel or bright-colored clothing you have on, the more likely it is that a motorist will be able to see you, especially at night.

Work Facing Traffic

If at all possible you should always work while facing traffic. This will help you monitor the vehicles headed towards you and notice any that might be straying from their lane of travel. As you are picking up at the end of the day you should never turn your back on traffic. This is especially important when picking up cones, which open up the construction zone to traffic.

Were you injured in a construction zone accident on any of the roads in California? It’s important for you to speak about your incident with an San Diego construction injuries attorney from the Simpson Law Group today. Call the office to schedule an appointment.