Efforts Lag to Improve Safety in Texas Work Zones

Accidents involving dangerous drop-offs kill about 160 people and injure 11,000 each year.  The steeper the drop-off, the greater the potential danger.  The Federal Highway Administration has repeatedly urged states to deal with pavement-edge drop-offs, encouraging a change in the paving equipment to smooth the edge.  There is no nationwide standard for safety with regard to pavement drop-offs.

Many work-zone issues create huge concerns for Texas roadway safety, such as concrete barriers in the wrong position, obsolete lane markings left in place, and inadequate warning signs.  Roughly 85% of those killed in work zones are motorists.

Unfortunately for Texas drivers, there are no real laws or regulations mandating safety measures in work zones.  Texas drivers can rely only on loosely-enforced state standards.  Because of the lack of federal guidelines, contractors are rarely penalized for creating hazardous conditions on Texas roads.  Offending contractors remained repeatedly hired, and no atttention is paid to their dangerous practices.

Drivers also contribute to the dangers of work-zone hazards by speeding in work zones, drunk-driving or being distracted drivers. 

TEXAS CASES ON POINT

BRYAN LEE

Even understanding the dangers of drop-offs in pavement, when the contractors repaving Highway 51 west of Fort Worth discovered that they lacked sufficient equipment, they decided to pave only part of the roadway and finish the rest days later, leaving a sharp drop-off.  A state inspector noted the danger but no one listened.  Two days after that warning, a 26-year-old oil field worker with a wife and two young sons on a Suzuki motorcycle slid off the asphalt edge, tumbled from the bike, and was run over by a pickup truck.  The Defendant company in this case has continued receiving Texas repaving contracts, and has received at least one project financed with federal stimulus money.

ANTHONY SEPEDA

Jesse Sepeda is a safety director for a major highway contractor in Texas.  Sadly, his own 18-year-old son Anthony died in a work-zone crash last year.  In violation of safe industry standards, a utility contractor digging a trench parked a backhoe less than two feet from the travel lane on Wells Branch Parkway in Pflugerville, without any warning signs.  Anthony’s motorcycle drifted too close and hit the backhoe.  After the accident, the backhoe was moved and barricades were put in place.

“I’m in this business, and I can tell you that these things happen all the time and there is nothing to hold a contractor accountable,” his father said. “In most cases you can’t do anything except go to court, and meanwhile the contractor just goes on doing his work and killing people.”

KYONG LEINGANG

Kyong Leingang, 54, was driving on Interstate 20 near Dallas when her Ford Explorer went off a pavement edge in a work zone.  Sshe struggled to regain control and steer back onto the roadway, but ultimately rammed a minivan head-on, killing herself and six members of an extended family in the minivan.  Three days before the crash, a state inspector complained to the contractor about untreated drop-offs; nothing was done.

NATIONWIDE PROBLEM

$27 billion from President Obama’s economic stimulus package led to a nationwide increase in highway construction.  Federal transportation officials are concerned that work-zone fatalities could rise again.  “The number of people killed as a result of crashes in work zones remains significant,” the Federal Highway Administration says on its Web site.

The Federal Highway Administration generally defers to the states for safety regulation of work zones.  But last year the agency proposed stricter rules in some areas.  Mostly though a general federal manual is relied on which gives no specific information on how to implement safety procedures.  The states prefer this since then they aren't really bound to do much to keep the roads "safe."  Compounding the problem, police are not trained to recognize work-zone problems.

Our experienced legal team of Texas Trucking Accident Lawyers, Houston Motorcycle Accident Specialists, and Greater Houston Area Auto Accident Attorneys is available to provide a free evluation of your case.  Please contact the lawyers of SMSH at info@smslegal.com or toll-free at (800) 282-2122.

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