The most common cause of vehicle to person accidents on construction sites are pedestrian workers being struck by moving vehicles. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that there were over 170 fatalities caused by being struck by a vehicle on a construction site in 2022.
Struck-by incidents can occur unfortunately frequently on a lot of construction sites for numerous reasons, including poor driver visibility around the entire vehicle, or blind spots caused by on-site objects. Poor site planning, insufficient PPE and lack of situational awareness from pedestrian workers are also key contributors to the issue.
Another study by NIOSH from 2020 reports that there we over 14,000 non-fatal struck-by incidents in the US construction sector, costing companies over $1.4bn in compensation.
The positive news is that proximity warning systems, such as SensorZone, can help to mitigate these causes and vastly reduce the chances of struck-by incidents occurring.
Amongst a range of options, the most effective method of preventing collisions between workers and vehicles is for the construction site to introduce a proximity warning system.
A proximity warning system is an excellent tool to mitigate some of main reasons for work site collisions occurring, such as blind spots, busy working environments and too much emphasis on vehicle operators always being alert and aware of their surroundings.
By deploying a tag-based proximity warning system that shares responsibility for on-site safety and gives active alerts to operators and pedestrian workers when near to danger, incidents can be prevented before they occur.
Since the SensorZone proximity detection system begun being deployed in the United States in 2021, there hasn’t been a recorded incident between workers and machines on a construction site.
