Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 001 Hazard:

OSH ACT of 1970 Section (5)(a)(1): The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that pedestrian employees were exposed to struck-by hazards from construction vehicles operating in and around a work zone on a closed-off area of a highway. Interstate 90 West Bound MM17.2 Beckett, MA. On or about November 15, 2018 the employees working in a work zone on the interstate were exposed to struck-by hazards from construction vehicles-including a grinder truck, a line painting truck, and two cone trucks operating in and around the same area where workers were required to remove lane marking tape and traffic warning signs, as well as place and remove traffic cones and barrels. These activities required employees to be on foot or bent over near and around these vehicles as the vehicles moved within the work zone and when they entered and left the work zone, which they did on multiple occasions to bring barrels and cones into and out of the work zone. The area in the work zone where both pedestrian employees worked and vehicles operated was no more than 24' wide. An employee was killed when a grinder truck operated by a subcontractor backed over him. Among other methods, feasible and acceptable methods to correct this hazard is to: A) Develop and implement a site specific Internal Traffic Control Plan (ITCP) to address the hazards associated with vehicles/equipment and pedestrian employees working in close proximity to one another, such as in a closed-off work zone on a highway, which is revised and updated as changing conditions in the work zone warrant. Such an ITCP is intended to minimize conflicts between employees and work vehicles/equipment and maximize the separation of pedestrians and vehicles/equipment. The ITCP may include: i. Requiring the employer to take steps to ensure that all vehicles required to have back-up alarms and that are entering a worksite over which it has control, do have alarms that are operating as intended; ii. Setting forth the tasks expected to be accomplished by pedestrian workers and vehicle/equipment operators on any given day, and note where in the work zone such pedestrian workers and vehicle/equipment operators are expected to be performing these tasks and for approximately how long; iii. Establishing and enforcing a work rule that pedestrian employees are prohibited from working or walking directly behind any vehicle/equipment unless and until they have affirmatively established that the vehicle operator is aware of their whereabouts or that there is no operator in/on the vehicle/equipment; iv. Establishing and enforcing a work rule that pedestrian employees are prohibited from working or walking directly in front of any vehicle/equipment unless and until they have affirmatively established that the vehicle operator is aware of their whereabouts or that there is no operator in/on the vehicle/equipment; v. Reminding workers to never ignore the sound of a vehicle back-up alarm, but to stop what they are doing any time they hear one and assess whether it requires them to get out of the way; vi. Designating specific areas where vehicles/equipment will enter and exit the work zone, and unless there is no alternative, prohibiting pedestrian employees from entering these areas; vii. Designating specific areas where pedestrian employees will enter and exit the work zone, and unless there is no alternative, prohibiting vehicles/equipment from entering these areas; viii. Prohibiting vehicle/equipment operators from operating in reverse unless it is necessary to accomplish the task at hand: and