Work zone training, speed enforcement stepped up

In the wake of a Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) employee’s recent death, as well as the start of the major construction season, the safety of workers in work zones is getting a lot of attention.

Chris Engelbrecht, MoDOT Central District safety and health manager, has been with the department since 1993 and started as a maintenance worker in Dixon.

Safety training was pretty casual and thin for a highway worker then, he said.

“I can tell you that the level of training was very low when I started,” he said, “When I started, there was an average of three MoDOT employees killed per year. It was not always workers out on job sites, there were also a lot of internal equipment operators who lost their lives. We had only 3,000 field employees in maintenance at that time; so the odds of getting killed or injured were pretty high.”

Engelbrecht was a flagger with no training, so he was basically told to stand on the side of the road, talk on the walkie-talkie and let the traffic go through.

“So much has changed for the better 20 years later,” he said. “We now run all new employees through several days of orientation so they don’t go out without safety training in the classroom. Things such as fall protection are really stressed.”

Engelbrecht said they pair new workers with experienced workers to do field training.

“They have to show competency at a work site before they can do things on their own,” Engelbrecht said. “It could take six months to a year. Past experience helps, but we’ve had people who came to us after working at a fast food restaurant to those who have been in the building trades for 15 years.”

Lyndon Ebker, 55, was hit and killed working traffic control on a bridge maintenance project on Missouri 100 in Franklin County on April 7. He was hit despite warning signs for motorists and other precautions put in place.

Since last year, Jefferson City police have done speed enforcement efforts from time to time in the area of the Lafayette Interchange project after workers said drivers were not obeying the speed limit in the work zone, making them feel unsafe.

Police officials have said they will continue to be vigilant to enforce the speed limits in the Lafayette work zones and will likely do the same while the rehab project on the Missouri River bridge takes place.

“Every dollar that we spend on workers compensation and fleet vehicle damage is money we could spend to build projects, so it’s important to control the costs,” Engelbrecht said. “However in the end, we look at this as not about the money but making sure that everybody goes home safe.”