Drivers make life risky for 'cone zone' workers
When you're working on a roadside construction project, Chris Ukowich says you practically need eyes in the back of your head.
Ukowich, a Colorado Department of Transportation safety officer, got his start working on highway maintenance. Now charged with auditing sites and providing training for employees, he remembers how unnerving it is to hear cars ping roadwork signs and see them send cones flying.
"There's really no safe time to be out there given the number of distractions people have in their cars now," he said. "They're like soundproof cocoons."
As the weather warms and construction projects in Fort Collins and across the state get into full swing, CDOT is reminding people to be extra cautious when driving by functional construction sites
There are more than 10 ongoing or upcoming construction projects in Fort Collins.
In 2011, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 830 work zone crashes in Colorado. Among drivers, passengers and workers, there were 10 fatalities and 96 injuries in those crashes.
Last week, a contract employee was hit and injured with a piece of construction equipment during installation of traffic signals on the northbound on-ramp for Interstate 25 at Colorado Highway 392 (Carpenter Road) in Windsor.
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Nationwide, about 600 people die and 37,000 are injured in work zone crashes each year.
Ukowich said CDOT tries to make workers as visible as possible, putting signs up ahead of construction zones and using attenuator trucks — large trucks that have a cushion to slow or stop cars that hit them — to separate workers from traffic.
CDOT requires safety training for some employees including project managers and maintenance personnel involved in roadside construction. CDOT or the contractors can also work with people on site to brush up on safety strategies as needed.
In last week's incident, the contractor stopped work on the site for the day and the next day reviewed safety procedures with staff as a preventive measure.
Ukowich said before projects begin, people review what work is being done, what the layout will be like and how they can be safe on that particular work site.
"Whether it's a couple of people or a boatload of people, they're all together and we explain what work is going to be done and say 'OK, the attenuator truck is going to be here; you can dive into the median here; there's an escape route here,' " Ukowich said.
Colorado State Patrol Trooper Nate Reid said troopers often try to make construction zones safer simply by being there, which can sometimes encourage people slow down and drive more carefully.
"Oftentimes, people don't even know they were in a work zone, they were so distracted," he said.
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That's dangerous under normal circumstances, let alone through construction zones with narrowed lanes, traffic shifts and fast-moving cars in opposite directions — sometimes on highways or interstates — separated by only a line of paint.
In 2015, there were more than 15,000 distracted driving crashes in Colorado, and 68 people died, a CDOT survey found.
In construction zones where workers are present, drivers face double the normal fine for speeding, and often speed limits are greatly reduced during projects. Reid said enforcement can help encourage drivers to be safer, but can also be a chance to explain to folks on the road why there's a need to take extra precautions when moving through work zones.
He said troopers in work zones look primarily for speed and any distractions in the car and can wait to pull people over until they get out of the work zone, which canmake it safer, he said.
"We want to make sure people are paying attention in these construction zones," he said. "People are working on their feet (in these construction zones) and you have to be really cognizant of that and aware of your surroundings."
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