We Support Workers in the “Cone Zone”
According to the National Safety Council, in 2019 “842 people were killed and 39,100 people were injured in work zone crashes.” Now that warmer weather is here, it’s a great time to think about our workers in the “cone zone.”
Since construction projects typically pick up this time of year, several organizations banded together to create National Work Zone Awareness Week (April 26-30). For over 20 years, this week has raised awareness for work zone safety reminding motorists to slow down and pay attention in work zones. We applaud this effort to keep our workers safe.
No one should die or be injured because they went to work.
At TapRooT®, we hear about incidents that happen in the cone zone too often. While motorist awareness is essential to avoiding work zone accidents, we know that other mistakes, errors and equipment failures contribute to these accidents as well. A few common ones I’ve heard are:
- The worker stepped into the line of fire.
- The worker did not hear/see an oncoming vehicle.
- The worker was in a hurry to get the job done.
- Cones / signs were not in place.
- The worker took a shortcut “just this once.”
The mistakes I mentioned above are not intended to place blame on the workers, but to highlight we need to dig deeper and find out what root causes existed that made it easier for our workers to become vulnerable to injury. Blaming the worker is not a solution. However, creating other safeguards in the event a motorist loses awareness in a work zone can help stop these tragedies from happening.
Our hearts are with all those who risk their lives and work on our roads every day.
If you are struggling to solve some of the problems mentioned above, please consider joining us for an upcoming 2-Day TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis Essentials Course where you can bring an incident to analyze for root causes to ensure it doesn’t happen again. You’ll leave the course with knowledge about how to proactively use TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis to analyze near-misses and potentially save someone’s life, as well as the knowledge to swiftly analyze incidents that occur and develop strong corrective actions.
