WORK ZONE ACCIDENTS IN ARIZONA: AN ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENTS AND SELECTION OF COUNTERMEASURES

Nationally, work zone fatalities peaked at over 800 per year during the 1990's. As a result, work zone accidents received considerable national attention, including emphasis in federal transportation legislation. Arizona tallied 82 fatal 5,009 injury accidents in work zones during a five year periods. Recognizing a problem that needed attention, the Arizona Department of Transportation funded a study of work zone accidents and countermeasures. The objectives of the project included: (1) Characterizing the nature of work zone accidents in Arizona; (2) Reviewing countermeasures used throughout the country, and the effectiveness of those countermeasures; and (3) Recommending countermeasures for use in Arizona to improve work zone safety and reduce accidents. Work zone accidents account for about 3 percent of all reported accidents in Arizona, or about 3,000 work zone accidents per year. These accidents produce about 18 fatalities and 1,600 injuries per year. Compared to all accidents statewide: work zone accidents tend to be less server; larger vehicles tend to be over-represented in work zone accidents are over-represented on the State Highway System. A detailed analysis of fatal accident reports did not clearly identify any common or widespread factors that contribute to fatal accidents occurring in work zones. Twenty percent of the fatal accident reports did note that there were no pavement markings at the location of the accident. This paper will concentrate on the part of the project that analyzed work zone accidents in Arizona.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Upchurch, J
• Conference:
  • Compendium of Papers. Institute of Transportation Engineers 2000 District 6 Annual Meeting
  • Location: San Diego, California
  • Date: 2000-6-24 to 2000-6-28
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 9p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Analysis; Countermeasures; Crash injuries; Crashes; Fatalities; Marking materials; Pavements; Rural areas; Work zone safety
• Geographic Terms: Arizona
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pavements; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00803454
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 19 2001 12:00AM