Highway Construction Zone Safety 101

With large road and highway construction projects scattered around the Metro Vancouver area, construction zone safety has become a very great concern. As early as 2007, spikes in the number of collisions on Lower Mainland roads involving traffic control construction flag personnel had gotten the attention of some in the media and the government, enough to spark a large scale advertising campaign by Worksafe BC involving large high visibility signs at large road construction sites profiling many BC families who have members in the road construction industry.

There is much more road construction going on today in the Greater Vancouver area and construction zone safety is more important than it ever was before. With huge projects stretching virtually from Langley to Whistler, drivers need to pay close attention and adhere to some common sense rules to avoid involvement in dangerous construction-zone crashes and incidents.

Here are some of the things that you as a driver can do to minimize the dangers of driving through a road construction area;

1. Reduce your speed
2. Always obey traffic control personnel (flag persons)
   
3. Keep plenty of space around your vehicle, so that you can manoeuvre if you need to - most importantly, leave considerable following distance
   
4. Keep your eyes scanning well ahead of you and to the sides of the road for approaching hazards
5. Use extra caution around construction equipment - machine operators have 2 jobs to do when they have to watch traffic as well as perform other duties

Using extra caution when driving through these hazardous areas is a must. Check radio traffic reports frequently and avoid areas where there is heavy congestion due to construction. Plan alternative routes to avoid these areas whenever possible. Not driving through a construction zone is probably the safest way to navigate it :)