Every year thousands of people are involved in traffic crashes that occur in work zones. Many of these crashes can be attributed to either improperly maintained or improperly placed traffic control devices. We must all be aware that improperly placed or incorrectly used traffic control devices can cause injury or death and lead to liability lawsuits. The legal liability of governmental entities and their representatives in the area of public safety has changed significantly in recent years.
Federal regulations mandate minimum standards for public safety within work zone areas.
This can lead to unknown liability on cities, counties and engineering firms, not only for contributory negligence on the placement of traffic control devices, but also for improper training of those individuals in charge of the proper and safe placement of these devices in work zones and road maintenance. While we all need to be concerned about the legal aspect of a lawsuit, we must be more concerned about the safety of both the general public and the employee. By concentrating on this concern, the concern about the legal actions will be reduced. Two areas of work zone safety that are all too often either overlooked or not properly addressed are taper lengths and pedestrian traffic. A common error is having too short of a taper length when channelizing devices are being used to redirect traffic flow.