One person was injured and another was killed in a construction zone last September when an Arkansas woman struck the two city employees with her car. Today it is reported that a Washington County Circuit Court judge sentenced the woman to six months in jail in connection with the death of the city worker. This is a sobering reminder that efforts to improve our roads should be accompanied by increased efforts for safe driving. According to a recent study[1], the fatality rate related to construction accidents in Arkansas is at 25.6. This is relatively high compared to California at 9.4 and the second lowest rate, 7.3 in Arizona.
Arkansas Highway Construction is an ongoing risk for both workers and drivers. The inability to maneuver through hazards because of congested traffic is a contributing factor to the increased risk of driving through highway construction zones. Because there is a significant amount of highway construction going on in Arkansas right now, it is good to know where construction sites are located and to plan accordingly. The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department lists the RED-Zones or areas where Arkansas Highway projects that have significantly reduced capacity that lead to travel delays on its website.
Many times, injuries from construction zones go unreported because employers do not want workers’ compensation insurance programs to become more expensive. Even so, information that increases these premiums may be the answer for states’ whose workers’ compensation programs are so minimal that injured workers wind up paying out of pocket expenses in addition to losing income from loss of work due to injuries. If you have been the victim of an accident in a highway construction zone, please call me to discuss the specifics of your case and how I may be able to help you.
[1] Current research is from the RAND Corporation. RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis.