More Road Workers Injured or Killed on Job than Reported, AAA Study Finds

Heathrow, FL (WorkersCompensation.com) - An estimated four times more road workers are struck and killed on the job than reported, a new survey from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety said.

The study found that roadside assistance providers, including tow truck drivers, mobile mechanics, emergency roadside technicians and safety service patrol workers face more danger on the side of the road than previously thought, and that the numbers may be actually getting worse.

“Understanding the circumstances and causes for fatal crashes involving roadside workers is vital if we are serious about saving lives,” Dr. David Yang, president and executive director of the AAA Foundation, said. “Many of these crashes can be avoided if drivers focus on driving and observe the law by slowing down and moving over when they see roadside assistance providers performing their duties.”

The foundation’s researchers analyzed data from a number of sources and found that between 2015 and 2021, 123 roadside assistance workers were killed by passing vehicles. However, national crash data only indicates the number of assistance workers killed was 34.

Officials said the discrepancy is due in part to state police not identifying the victims as roadside assistance providers, and instead listing them as “pedestrians.” AAA researchers said that while the yearly total traffic fatalities increased over the study period, data indicates that fatalities to roadside assistance providers increased even more.

The survey found that a majority of the fatalities, 89 percent, were at locations with speed limits of 55 miles per hour or higher, primarily interstates or other limited-access highways. Of the crashes, 84 percent occurred during good weather with no precipitation or slippery road conditions. Nearly two-thirds of the accidents, 63 percent, happened during darkness, the study found, and of those, two-thirds were at locations without street lights.

And, the study found, 63 percent of the accidents occurred after the vehicle had already left the road and was traveling on the shoulder or beyond. Researchers said this suggests that drivers of the vehicles that struck roadside assistance workers were impaired, fatigued or distracted. Researchers found that more than a third of the drivers involved in those fatalities who were tested for alcohol came back alcohol-positive. Still, they said, nearly half of the drivers where not tested for alcohol at all.

“Let’s remember this study is about real people, not statistics,” Jake Nelson, AAA’s traffic safety and advocacy director. “It’s a shared responsibility to solve this safety challenge. Roadside workers and all of us who drive by them have to take action to move towards zero traffic deaths.”

The AAA Foundation said addressing the fatalities meant training roadside workers to prioritize work away from traffic, as well as equipping them with strategies to avoid harm. And the foundation said employers should use countermeasures to prevent vehicles from striking workers, like vehicle-mounted electronic variable message signs.

During 2021, a total of 42,939 people died in motor vehicle crashes, costing the U.S. economy an estimated $340 billion, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 5,486 fatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2022, more than a third, 37.7 percent, were transportation incidents. The U.S. saw 2,066 fatal transportation injuries in 2022, up from 1,982 in 2021, a 4.2 percent increase.

Workers in the transportation industry and in material moving occupations saw 1,620 fatal work injuries in 2022, representing the group with the most fatalities, followed by construction workers and extraction workers with 1,056 fatalities.

According to BLS statistics, on the job transportation fatalities increase in both 2021 and 2022, but the number of incidents was still down nearly 3 percent from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 when the country saw 2,122 transportation related fatalities. Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles increase almost 10 percent between 2021 and 2022, leading to a high of 1,369 fatalities. Pedestrian vehicular incidents were down 3.6 percent in 2022, officials with BLS said, to 325 – the lowest number since 2018.

In late December, a vehicle collided with the rear of another vehicle in Mobile, Alabama, killing the driver and a passenger.

Police said an ASAP Ambulance from Mississippi was returning from a medical call when they stopped to offer assistance to another accident. Another vehicle, operated by Michael Thomas, 35, struck the driver of one of the vehicles and a 30-year-old ASAP Medic. The medic was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials said the 28-year-old female driver sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Police said Thomas exhibited signs of impairment and was taken into custody where he was charged with manslaughter, assault and felony driving under the influence.

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