AGC to Offer Free Highway Work Zone Safety Training Programs

AGC will provide free highway work zone safety training classes next year thanks to a federal safety grant the association earned. AGC was awarded a Susan Harwood Training Grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to offer the safety training classes designed to prevent injuries among highway, street and bridge construction workers. The highway work zone safety program will be offered in eight different locations beginning in January 2015. The program will provide comprehensive information about proper set up of highway work zones, flagger safety and heavy equipment management, with the intent of protecting thousands of highway construction workers on hundreds of job sites. In addition, the highway work zone program will be made available on CD to AGC members nationwide. According to the latest federal safety data, 962 workers were killed at road construction sites between 2003 and 2010. Meanwhile, an AGC survey last spring found that 45 percent of contractors had vehicles crash into their work zones during the past year. Even worse, workers are injured in 20 percent of those crashes and killed in 6 percent of those crashes. AGC has been involved in National work zone awareness campaigns for the past many years aimed primarily at motorists. This new initiative is aimed at helping workers protect themselves.