Abstract

On a winter day, a 53-year-old retired fire chief was working for an environmental company to clean up a tractor trailer crash along an interstate. A semi tractor-trailer driver had fallen asleep and crashed. The environmental company had been deployed to assist in the cleanup and facilitate a lane closure. The cleanup was almost complete and there were five workers left at the incident site. They were working in the right lane loading a tag-along trailer with items from the crash when a box truck crashed into the work zone, striking the worker, and killing him.

To prevent future occurrences of similar incidents, the following recommendations have been made:

Recommendation No. 1: Companies should provide new and refresher commercial driver safety training for company drivers that addresses driver distraction and includes defensive driving techniques.

Recommendation No. 2: Companies should institute errant traffic alert procedures for roadside work zones.

Recommendation No. 3: Commercial tractor-trailer drivers should be trained to recognize signs of fatigue and when to seek appropriate rest areas.

Document Type

Report

Release Date

6-27-2012

Incident Number

11KY006

Notes/Citation Information

A summary of this case is available as the additional file listed below.

11KY006_Summary.pdf (60 kB)
Case Summary

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