This is the season of road construction across the country. When the road workers take to the jobs across the highways and interstates of America, they will find themselves next traffic traveling at high rates of speed. And while there are many road blocks and flashing lights that warn of upcoming road projects, the clothing that these workers wear also serve as protection. From high visibility jackets to a variety of other safety clothing options, the clothing that people wear when they are on the job make them visible and keep them safe. Work shirts with reflective stripes provide visibility in both daytime and nighttime hours.
Whether you are the foreman on a large construction crew working on miles of interstate or you are in charge of a work team that is working on a very short stretch of bridge in the city, it is important that you are able to dress your workers in a way that will keep them safe. Worker safety, in fact, is a top priority no matter how expensive or low lengthy a project will be.
High Visibility Jackets and Other Kinds of Orange Safety Vests Alert Drivers to Construction Crews
No work is worth its value if it comes at the cost of a life. Training workers to remain safe while they are on the job and to make sure that they wear high visibility jackets and other safety clothing can help you keep workers safe even when you are working against a difficult deadline to complete a large project.
Few jobs are as dangerous as working on a road crew alongside a busy stretch of traffic in town or on the interstate. Consider some of these statistics about the danger of being on the job and the precautions that can be taken to keep workers safe:
- 4,836 workers were killed on the job in the year 2015. That is equal to 13 deaths every singleday.
- A new employee in their first month at work has more than three times the risk for a lost-time injury than others, according to the Institute for Work and Health in Canada.
- Workers 65 and older experienced 94.2 injuries per 10,000 full-time employees, less than any age group in 2014, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Earplugs can reduce noise by 15 to 30 decibels depending on the fit.
- Sounds that are louder than 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss.
- 33% of the 2013 nonfatal work injuries that required time away were suffered by employees with less than one year of service.
When was the last time that you paid close enough attention to the workers who are toiling along the side of the road? If they were not wearing the proper kind of reflective clothing, would you have notices those workers? Even when the workers are properly dressed, it is still important that all drivers pay attention to their surroundings and slow to suggested construction speed limits.
Helpful links. Good references here.