Inspection Detail

Inspection: 301875282 - Bailey'S Paving Construction, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Oklahoma City Area Office

Investigation Summary

Employee #1, a flagman, was controlling traffic on one end of a highway paving project. He had just moved his flagging station by repositioning a pickup truck with flashing lights on the highway shoulder. Two vehicles in the lane that he was controlling approached him from the east. As the first vehicle came near him, Employee #1 was next to the parked pickup, but he suddenly moved onto the roadway in front of the oncoming vehicles. The first vehicle swerved to the right and hit the parked pickup. The second vehicle, traveling at 70 mph, slammed on the brakes, leaving a 163 ft long set of tire skid marks. The second vehicle struck Employee #1, then ran into the first vehicle. Employee #1 was knocked under the first vehicle, which is where he was found by coworkers. He was killed. It was hypothesized that Employee #1 was startled by the approaching vehicles and was attempting to stop them by going onto the highway. Causal factors of the accident were Employee #1 moving in front of the oncoming traffic with no warning and the excessive speed of the second vehicle. Contributing factors included: the limited distance in which the flagging station was visible to oncoming traffic; the flagman's practice of standing in the roadway as traffic approached; and the lack of a speed limit reduction in the approach to the flagging station and through the work area.

Keywords: HIGHWAY, TRAFFIC ACCIDENT, SPEEDING, WORK RULES, CONSTRUCTION, FLAGMAN, TRAFFIC CONTROL, STRUCK BY, MOTOR VEHICLE, WARNING SIGN