Personal Safety Lites

Personal Safety Lites are perfect for a multitude of applications. Parents, use these lights to draw attention to children by wearing an armband or attaching directly to book bags, jackets, belts, bicycles or scooters. And adults can increase their visibility when walking, jogging or bicycling during low light or dark conditions.

Safety on the jobsite for construction workers and road crews, traffic control personnel, or for anyone who needs to be seen in low light or no light conditions is always an important issue. Personal Safety Lites are visible for a distance of approximately ½ mile, and over a mile in the right conditions.

Polycarbonate lenses are not scratch-resistant but are very difficult to break and will not shatter. The housing assembly is also made of a durable polymer to withstand damage.

LED’s have:
- Extended lifetime - most rated to 100,000 hours
- Energy savings in many applications
- Reduced heat output
- Brighter, more intense colors

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard maintains that LED lights cannot be used in place of chemical flares for broken down vehicles, however, they can be used as supplemental warning devices “in addition to...the required warning devices*, provided those warning devices do not decrease the effectiveness of the required warning devices.” Required warning devices include three bi-directional emergency reflective triangles that conform to the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 125, §571.125; or at least 6 fusees or 3 liquid burning-flares.

Personal Safety Lites can be attached to oversize loads or when used in traffic control applications. Construction companies and DOT flaggers use these lights in various applications and other environments requiring a highly visible signaling device.

Incident Command

The Incident Command System was originally established in California in response to natural disasters, and the complications of several agencies trying to cooperate to effectively cope with these disasters and save lives. A unified Incident Command eliminated structural and communication problems associated with agency cooperation during a national crisis.
Concepts of Incident Command include:
- Unity of Command
- Universal Terminology
- Management by Objective
- Flexible and Modular Organization
- Span-of-Control
Concepts were then integrated into the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in 2003.

NIMS is a comprehensive, national approach to incident management that is applicable at all jurisdictional levels and across functional disciplines. It is intended to:
- Be applicable across a full spectrum of potential incidents, hazards, and impacts, regardless of size, location or complexity
- Improve coordination and cooperation between public and private entities in a variety of incident management activities
- Provide a common standard for overall incident management
FEMA's NIMS Resource center details a:
- Five-Year NIMS Training Plan
- NRF Integrated Emergency Management Course (IEMC)
- NIMS Courses

Road Construction Across the Nation

ARRA By The Numbers

As of January 7, 2010:
- 1,125 bridges had been improved, replace or newly constructed
- 21,400 miles of pavement were either improved, resurfaced or widened
- 1,700 miles of safety traffic management projects were implemented
- Over 630 miles of bike lanes, sidewalks or environmental mitigation projects underway
- 7,450 buses have been purchased and 1,637 bus shelters constructed
Real People Are Working Real Jobs
- 280,000 direct, on-project jobs have been created or sustained across the country
- Total employment from these projects, which includes direct, indirect, and induced jobs, reaches almost 890,000 jobs.
Visit the Projects and Paychecks website.


Workzone Fatalities - Click image for downloadable pdf.

Secretary LaHood Announces Funding for Over 50 Innovative, Strategic Transportation Projects through Landmark Competitive TIGER Program

One year to the day after President Obama signed the historic American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will announce Recovery Act awards to states, tribal governments, cities, counties and transit agencies across the country to fund 51 innovative transportation projects. The U.S. Department of Transportation required rigorous economic justifications for projects more than $100 million and will require all recipients to report on their activities on a routine basis.

ASTM Standard Covers Sustainable Use of Recycled Asphalt Pavement

Developed by Subcommittee D18.14 on Geotechnics of Sustainable Construction, proposed standard ASTM WK26824 is an important step in guiding federal, state, and local highway agencies, contractors, material suppliers, and consultants on sustainable use of recycled asphalt pavement. According to Haifang Wen, Ph.D., use of recycled materials reduces need for virgin materials and disposal of existing materials and can protect the environment, reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.Click the image to go to the ASTM website.

HiVis In the News

Ronald Gary Taunton, a 20-year employee of East Alabama Paving in Opelika, died instantly after he was run over by a dump truck. Authorities believe Taunton was directing heavy equipment on a work site with the highway department when he apparently failed to move out from behind a Lee County truck as it was backing up. Authorities reported that Taunton was wearing his safety vest and the backup alarm on the truck was working properly.
The coroner said in a press release that the incident is being investigating “as an accident” by Auburn police, the coroner’s office and the Alabama Medical Examiner’s Office.

Comprehensive Safety Analysis
Starting in the summer of 2010, FMCSA will implement comprehensive safety analysis 2010 CSA 2010, which is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of FMCSA’s enforcement and compliance program.

How Will This Change Affect Drivers?
* Unsafe carrier and driver behaviors that lead to crashes will be identified and addressed
* All safety-based roadside inspection violations will count, not just Out-of-Service (OOS) violations
* Drivers will be more accountable for safe on-road performance — good news for drivers with strong safety performance records





What can drivers do to prepare for the change?
1) Know and follow safety rules and regulations - CMV safe driving tips
2) Become knowledgeable about the new Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (BASICs) and how FMCSA will assess safety under CSA 2010
3) Keep copies of inspection reports
4) Learn about employers’ safety records
5) Visit the CSA 2010 website

Road Work Safety and Transportation - In the News

In the single worst economic time since the depression, job-loss reportings that are lower than expected become overall good news. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has estimated December 2009 job losses at 84,000, a little higher for the month than expected, but the Portland Cement Association (PCA) final quarter job loss predictions of 861,000 are far higher than actual 501,000 for the final quarter of 2009 as reported on Jan. 14th by Site Prep magazine.

The DOT’s Secretary LaHood said that the Obama administration’s approved $79 billion dollar budget promotes safety in a number of areas, starting with a new $50 million grant incentive program to the states to combat distracted driving. Since Secretary LaHood convened a national Distracted Driving Summit last fall, he has undertaken a nationwide campaign to put an end to the deadly epidemic.

More than half of U.S. highway fatalities are related to deficient roadway conditions – a substantially more lethal factor than drunk driving, speeding or non-use of safety belts – according to the Transportation and Construction Coalition (TCC) and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). Ten roadway-related crashes occur every minute (5.3 million a year) and also contribute to 38 percent of non-fatal injuries. The report also found that deficiencies in the roadway environment contributed to more than 22,000 fatalities and cost $217 billion annually.

Analysis of crash costs on a state-by-state basis.

The 10 states with the:

Highest total cost from crashes involving deficient road conditions are (alphabetically): Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

Highest road-related crash costs per million vehicle miles of travel are: Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Highest road-related crash costs per mile of road are: California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and South Carolina.

FHWA Ruling on ANSI/ISEA Garments for Public Safety Personnel

FHWA Mandates High-visibility Safety Apparel Meeting ISEA Standards for All Workers in Highway Rights-of-Way, Workzones

The 2009 revision to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), published by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) yesterday, requires workers, including emergency responders, along highway rights-of-way or in workzones to wear high-visibility apparel whenever they are exposed to moving traffic, work vehicles or construction equipment. The apparel must meet Performance Class 2 or 3 requirements of ANSI/ISEA 107-2004, the American National Standard for High Visibility Safety Apparel and Headwear. This requirement also applies to firefighters, emergency responders and law enforcement personnel working within the right-of-way. As an option, emergency responders and law enforcement personnel may wear garments that meet the standard for high-visibility public safety vests, ANSI/ISEA 207-2006. A separate section of the MUTCD, which covers specific requirements for flaggers, also requires the use of ANSI/ISEA 107-compliant apparel, and specifies that background material must be fluorescent orange-red, fluorescent yellow-green “or a combination of the two as specified in the ANSI standard.” Previously, the FHWA only required workers in federal-aid highway workzones to use these garments.
The revised MUTCD states: “All workers, including emergency responders, within the right-of-way who are exposed to traffic (vehicles using the highway for purposes of travel) or to work vehicles and construction equipment within the [Temporary Traffic Control] zone shall wear high-visibility safety apparel that meets the Performance Class 2 or 3 requirements of the ANSI/ISEA 107-2004 publication entitled ‘American National Standard for High-Visibility Safety Apparel and Headwear’ (see Section 1A.11) or equivalent revisions, and labeled as meeting the ANSI 107-20004 standard performance for Class 2 or 3 risk exposure, except as provided in paragraph 5… Emergency and incident responders and law enforcement personnel within the [Temporary Traffic Control] zone may wear high-visibility safety apparel that meets the performance requirements of the ANSI/ISEA 207-2006 publication entitled ‘American National Standard for High-Visibility Public Safety Vests’ (see Section 1A.11) or equivalent revisions, and labeled as ANSI 207-2006, in lieu of ANSI/ISEA 107-2004 apparel…”
The revised MUTCD takes effect January 15, 2010. Workers on non-federal highways will have to be in compliance with the high-visibility safety apparel requirements by December 31, 2011. Read more and find links to the relevant federal documents under “ISEA News” at www.safetyequipment.org

Highway Fatality Statistics

In 2008, there were at total of 36,541 fatalities on US road system. Highest by state:

• California 3,364


• Texas 3,248


• Florida 2,897


• Pennsylvania 1,445


• Georgia 1,457

There were also a total of 720 fatalities in Construction/Maintenance zones along those same road systems. Highest by state:

• Texas 134


• Florida 81


• California 70


• Georgia 36


• Illinois 31

In 2008, 101 of those fatalities were related to vehicles passing through roadside construction.

While studies are still being conducted on different types of reflective material s and colors for hi-visibility garments, the dangers are still present. Uniform traffic devices are used to allow for a safer road-side working environment, but construction sites along highways will always have the unavoidable hazard of passing vehicles, with distracted driving through use of cell phones and drinking and drugging on the road.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a great reference page on Highway work zone safety.

The Department of Labor (DOL) through the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) regularly publishes worker fatality and occupational injuries information.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has traffic safety laws and regulations.

The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) encyclopedia has national statistics, reports, publications, documents and manuals.

HiVisSupply wishes all workers and drivers a safe and happy holiday season.