How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 79 severe cases of roadway collisions over the past decade. Fractures are the most common injury type, appearing in 38 percent of all reported incidents and often requiring extensive surgical intervention.
Intracranial injuries account for 13 percent of these events, highlighting the extreme force involved when heavy vehicles collide with you while you are on foot or in smaller equipment.
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Roadway collisions at work often occur when you are performing traffic control, maintenance, or signaling duties near active lanes. Trucks are the primary source of these incidents, frequently striking you while you are positioned in buckets, on lift gates, or standing near the roadway. These accidents often happen when drivers fail to notice work zones or swerve to avoid obstacles, directly impacting your safety when you have little protection against heavy machinery.
| Injury Type | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fractures | 26 |
| 2 | Intracranial Injuries | 9 |
| 3 | Traumatic injuries or exposures— unspecified | 8 |
| 4 | Severe wounds or internal injuries and other injuries | 8 |
| 5 | Amputations, avulsions, enucleations | 3 |
| 6 | Injuries to the brain, spinal cord and other injuries | 3 |
| 7 | Injuries to internal organs and major blood vessels | 3 |
| 8 | Multiple traumatic injuries and disorders— unspecified | 2 |
Where injuries happen most
Construction leads all industries with 34 percent of reported roadway collisions, largely due to the high volume of work performed in active traffic zones. Transportation and warehousing follow at 18 percent, as you are constantly exposed to vehicle traffic while loading, unloading, or managing freight. Administrative services account for 16 percent of incidents when you are required to perform traffic-related tasks without the specialized training or protective barriers found in heavy construction.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these incidents include you being struck while inside equipment buckets, standing on truck lift gates, or occupying vehicles that are hit by passing traffic. These reports consistently show that even when you follow safety protocols, the failure of third-party drivers or inadequate work zone protection leads to severe outcomes. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you review the specifics of your incident.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | PA | Administrative Services | "An employee was in their personal vehicle awaiting instructions from the construction contractor on posting traffic cones. The driver of a motor vehicle swerved to avoid a steel plate in the roadway and struck the employee's car. The employee was hospitalized with four fractured ribs." | |
| 2025 | FL | Utilities | "An employee was working on a signal device while inside the bucket of a bucket truck. A tree service truck with a folded boom arm attached to the top collided with the bottom of the bucket the employee was occupying. This caused the employee to fall from the bucket and strike the pavement below. The employee was hospitalized with multiple injuries." | |
| 2024 | NY | Construction | "An employee was filling gaps in new asphalt on a bridge when a vehicle entered the closed lane and struck the rear passenger side of the dump truck that the employee was standing on. This caused the employee to be splashed with hot AC-20 asphalt, resulting in burns to his hands, face, and right eye. He also fell approximately 4 feet from the back of the truck to the ground." | |
| 2024 | CO | Construction | "An employee was inside a truck bucket, positioning it to perform maintenance on an overhead sign. A semi-truck in an active lane near the work zone struck the bucket the employee was in, causing the bucket to break and the employee to be ejected. His fall protection harness caught him before he hit the ground. He sustained a fractured left tibia." | |
| 2024 | ME | Construction | "An employee was putting out road barrels for traffic control and standing on the lift gate of a traffic truck with a driver in the driver's seat. The truck was struck from behind by a tractor trailer and the employee was thrown to the ground. The driver of the truck sustained injuries and was not hospitalized. The employee was hospitalized with a laceration to the head and a concussion, as well as a fractured femur that required surgery." | |
| 2024 | NJ | Construction | "An employee was picking up cones from the rear basket of a cone truck when an impact attenuator truck collided with the cone truck and caused the basket to bend inward. The employee was crushed and sustained a fractured pelvis." | |
| 2024 | ME | Construction | "An employee was operating a street sweeper following the paving crew in an active work zone. The street sweeper was struck from behind by an empty logging truck and the employee was thrown from the sweeper into the wood line. The employee was hospitalized for a skull fracture, two small brain bleeds, a laceration requiring 18 staples, an open fracture of his clavicle, a dislocated shoulder, and multiple scrapes and bruises. " | |
| 2024 | MO | Construction | "An employee was operating a skid steer in a work zone to unload gravel from a dump truck. The dump truck's brakes failed and the truck struck the skid steer. The skid steer operator sustained broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and a concussion. " | |
| 2024 | TX | Information | "An employee was parked along the side of a road working on a fiber outage. An automobile driven by an intoxicated person crossed over into the designated work zone and struck the employee's truck. The employee sustained injuries to his chest, lungs, shoulder, and head." | |
| 2023 | CO | Transportation & Warehousing | "An employee was sitting on the bed of the work truck while picking up safety cones in a work zone. An SUV drove into the work zone and struck the work truck. The SUV then hit the employee's legs, knocking her to the ground. The employee was hospitalized with a leg injury." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.