The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude and characteristics of safety problems, in terms of reported accidents, that are associated with moving vehicular traffic around and through highway maintenance and utility work zones. This was accomplished by examining 280 maintenance and utility work zone accidents that occurred on the Virginia state highway network over a period of 14 months. These represented approximately 0.4% of the total number of accidents reported during that period. A review of accident reporting procedures, however, indicated that the sample of accidents examined did not include a variety of work zone accidents where the roadway was not under physical repair (e.g., sweeping and landscaping) or where the first event in the accident was not related to the work activity (e.g., driver falling asleep). The report discusses several characteristics of the maintenance and utility work zone accidents including general and specific locations of the accident, time of the accident, roadway and environmental factors, characteristics of the work zone, cause of the accident, and accident severity. Where data were available comparisons were made between the maintenance and utility work zone accidents and all reported accidents.
The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude and characteristics of safety problems, in terms of reported accidents, that are associated...
Since it was first published in 1918, Public Roads has covered advances and innovations in highway and traffic research and technology, critical natio...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving a Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS)/National Transportation Library (NTL)
Web-based service.
Thank you for visiting.
You are about to access a non-government link outside of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's National
Transportation Library.
Please note: While links to Web sites outside of DOT are
offered for your convenience, when you exit DOT Web sites,
Federal privacy policy and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act (accessibility requirements) no longer apply. In
addition, DOT does not attest to the accuracy, relevance,
timeliness or completeness of information provided by linked
sites. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an
endorsement by DOT of the sponsors of the site or the
products presented on the site. For more information, please
view DOT's Web site linking policy.
To get back to the page you were previously viewing, click
your Cancel button.
United States Department of Transportation
[PDF-3.78 MB]
