Roadway construction workers are killed at a rate nearly three times higher than other construction workers. Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicate that the job related death rate for work zone workers is 32 deaths for every 100,000 workers while about 13 construction workers die on the job from non-work zone related construction activities. Compared with the four job related traumatic fatalities for industrial workers, it is apparent that highway workers need the focused attention of the health and safety community, regulators, transportation related trade associations and the motoring public. According to FHWA data, large trucks accounted for 230 of the 1,028 work zone fatalities in 2003. Within the last five years, man-made and natural disasters have impacted the United States in ways that we could never have imagined. September 11, 2001, brought terrorism to our doorstep. On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the Gulf Coast and wrought death and destruction in biblical proportions. Terrorism and natural disaster, however, are not new. America was startled by the World Trade Center bombing in New York in 1993 and homegrown terrorism affected us when the Murrah Federal Center was bombed in Oklahoma City in 1995. Hurricanes, tornados, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and other natural disasters have all disrupted the lives of a large number of citizens.

[Click here for a sample of topics]

The discipline of disaster response has been developed to a new level as a result of, and in response to 9/11 and Katrina. Not only are the lives of citizens at risk in a disaster, but the health and safety of the rescuers, other responders and clean-up personnel are at risk too. Establishing and managing evacuation routes, including proper signage and appropriate civilian responders to direct evacuees safely from harms way, is essential. The authors of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) have recognized this and have addressed it in Section 6I, where a traffic incident is defined as “an emergency road user occurrence, a natural disaster, or other unplanned event that affects or impedes the normal flow of traffic”.