TOO MANY DRIVERS HURT IN ACCIDENTS IN HIGHWAY WORK ZONES

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Bronx Injury Lawyer)

Studies show that roadway drop-offs are a common cause of serious injury in car or motorcycle accidents. Accidents involving dangerous pavement-edge drop-offs kill about 160 people and hurt 11,000 each year.

Also all too common are: misplaced concrete barriers, obsolete lane markings left in place, or neglecting to put out warning signs. Within the last five years, thousands of accidents in highway work zones across the country killed at least 4,700 people -- more than two a day -- and hurt or injured 200,000.

Aside from occasional reduced speed limit signs directed to passing motorists, there are few laws or regulations setting forth safety measures in highway work zones. Even industry standards are loosely enforced and vary from state to state. Rarely punished are contractors who engage in dangerous practices, whether they do so through ignorance, carelessness or greed.

Transportation officials tend to blame drivers, who sometimes speed in work zones, or drive while drunk or distracted. While federal authorities track the ways that drivers cause accidents, they do not devote an equal amount of attention to determine when contractors and highway planners are negligent and contribute to the happening of accidents. Accordingly, roadway work-zone crashes frequently are erroneously reported, misplacing blame.

The job of apportioning liability is left mostly to the courts and the jury system. Some states are trying to enact laws that limit the liability of highway contractors, without taking steps to protect the public by ensuring such contractors operate work sites safely, and that work site inspectors do their job properly. Thus, this brand of "tort reform" legislation - seeking to limit citizens' right to sue negligent highway construction companies - does not adequately address the problem at hand.