Published on: June 28, 2024

Paramedic Corey Froese has endured more than his fair share of chaos and conflict while attending to emergency situations at the roadside. During 21 years in the field, he’s seen it all — some motorists speeding past accident scenes, others driving dangerously close, and still others brandishing weapons or getting out of their vehicles to fight emergency crews.

By Sarah Ripplinger

The unique risks at emergency scenes faced by emergency responders requires those employers to provide these important workers with training and instruction on traffic control. Many smaller communities have inadequate police resources to provide traffic control at an accident scene. It’s important for these employers to plan ahead to reduce and mitigate the risks these workers face.

Now the provincial safety director with Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., Froese is part of the Work Zone Safety Alliance, a team of organizations committed to improving the safety of roadside workers. The Alliance supports the Cone Zone campaign, which educates drivers that cone zones are roadside workspaces.

“A key message that we want everyone using the road to remember is to always slow down and obey markers — such as traffic cones, signage, and lights — near roadside workers, and to never drive distracted,” Froese says. This includes accident scenes where first responders are helping the injured.

Slow down, focus, and stay calm in cone zones

The Cone Zone campaign — named after the worksite area cordoned off by traffic control devices, including traffic cones — raises awareness about protecting roadside workers. It runs year-round but kicks into high gear in May, before the start of the busy summer season when worksites along roadways contend with heavier traffic. The campaign aims to eliminate injuries, deaths, and crashes in roadside work zones in B.C.

Between 2014 and 2023, roadside incidents led to nine roadside worker deaths, 71 serious injuries, 30,770 workdays lost, and over $16 million in insurance claims, according to the latest WorkSafeBC statistics¹.

“One of our biggest frustrations is drivers who don’t pay attention — or even worse, a driver who is running late for something and then blames the traffic control person,” says Robert Clark, director of health and safety with the Universal Group, the largest traffic control company in B.C.

Clark says the Universal Group’s team of workplace health and safety advisors regularly takes calls regarding incidents of violence in the workplace and the emotional and physical aftermath that follows. Workers, particularly those new to the job, need to develop situational awareness straight out of the gate, Clark says.

“Things happen so fast on the road that you need to have your head on a swivel,” he says. “The speed of the cars and mobile equipment in the work zone, pedestrians trying to walk — it all means that you need to always be aware of your surroundings.”

An important new requirement of employers is the isolation of the work zone with concrete barriers because traffic cones provide less protection for workers.

Tens of thousands of B.C. residents work in these zones every day, says Trace Acres, program director for Road Safety at Work, which manages the Cone Zone campaign.

“Every one of them deserves to get home safe and healthy, the same as all drivers and their passengers,” Acres says.

Manage the risks

“Employers need to bear in mind that all roadside work zones are workplaces,” Acres says. “This means that employers must ensure that health and safety guidelines are followed to protect the workers from hazards on site.”

Under Part 18 of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, employers are responsible for complying with requirements related to protecting workers wherever traffic could be hazardous to them. The steps include a risk assessment and a traffic control plan that mitigates or eliminates these identified risks in alignment with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructures 2020 Traffic Management Manual for Work on Roadways. Work that takes place on provincial roadways in B.C. must also comply with requirements found in the manual.

“It’s important that employers identify the roadside hazards, assess the risks, and put in place measures to control the risks,” says Quinto Vizza, an occupational health and safety consultant with WorkSafeBC’s Prevention Programs and Services. “Completing a risk assessment and following the order of controls when considering safety measures are essential parts of making the worksite as safe as possible.”

The hierarchy of controls rates safety measures from most to least effective. Employers must first investigate options to eliminate or mitigate the risks. If those options are not practicable, the next steps are to use engineering controls, administrative controls, and traffic control persons equipped with appropriate PPE.

All workers must wear high-visibility garments while on roadside worksites, and employers must protect workers at worksites using appropriate controls to keep vehicles at a safe distance. At emergency scenes this often includes placement of first responding vehicles so that aid can be safely provided to injured persons.

“When planning for roadside worksites, employers are required to use signage or automated flagger assistance devices to alert drivers of the presence of a worksite and reduce health and safety risks to workers as much as possible,” Vizza says.

Lives on the line

“I’ve had a couple of close calls in my career,” recalls Steven Scuor, a senior safety consultant of people and culture with Telus*. In his work, he covers a territory that extends from B.C.’s Lower Mainland to Prince George, Terrace, and Fort St. John.

Scuor began as a field technician with the telecommunications company. He now often works at the roadside investigating accidents and safety concerns, including ones that occurred during the province’s recent record-breaking wildfire seasons.

Telecommunications workers are often called to areas where wires have been knocked out by falling trees or flames.

“During the 2023 wildfires in Kelowna, workers were called in to install temporary cellphone sites to ensure that the public could effectively communicate during evacuations,” Scuor says. “This comes at a risk, as there are often vehicles whizzing by as we are parked roadside.”

Scuor recently experienced a heart-pounding incident while inspecting a utility pole on a rainy day.

“I was pulled over on the shoulder of a residential road,” he recalls. “I set up cones with a buffer zone with my beacons on. I proceeded to inspect the pole when a car came rushing toward my vehicle.”

“The vehicle drifted over and ran over one of my cones before swerving out of the way,” Scuor says. “The driver was distracted from something but managed to keep the vehicle from colliding. The driver also did not stop and took my cone with them.”

Kane Brisseau has been working as a traffic control person with the Universal Group in the Langley area for more than four years. He has also experienced dangerous driving on the road, including a speeding car that startled him from behind.

These risks need to be effectively managed by employers. Following the hierarchy of controls when planning work on or near roadways reduces or eliminates this common hazard. Workers and employers need to remember that drivers are often not paying close attention to what is happening on the road. This driver inattention puts a worker or first responder — who may be concentrating on their tasks and inadvertently steps into the traveled portion of the roadway — at risk of injury. The big shift in B.C. is that protecting roadside workers is much more than simply placing cones on the roadway. It’s about assessing, planning, and implementing the new order of controls. It also might include some cones as well.

“Thankfully, I was in the cone zone and the car was not,” he says. “It makes me mad and frustrated how some people seem unable to truly slow down.”

Towing troubles

Roadside work ranges from construction sites to tow truck operations, and from emergency response to garbage removal. Mobile work — such as landscaping, line painting, and maintenance work — that butts up against oncoming traffic comes with its own unique set of circumstances and safety protocols.

“For example, towing is somewhat unique in that the bulk of roadside work is of brief duration,” says Ken Hendricks, an industry relations advisor for the Automotive Retailers Association and a member of the Work Zone Safety Alliance. “But sometimes the way that a tow truck needs to be positioned or manoeuvred makes the job more challenging in terms of being in a roadway.”

In addition, “most drivers recognize the blue and red flashing lights of a police cruiser and flashing red lights of an ambulance,” Hendricks says. “But they may not know what to do when they see the yellow lights of a tow truck.”

Towing firms in B.C. are now required to provide their workers with written work procedures that include what these workers are to do if the tow job or recovery cannot be done within the 15-minute “brief duration” window. This includes arranging for and coordinating full traffic control when the work goes beyond 15 minutes and becomes “short duration” work.

A tow truck may not present the same way as a construction zone, with traffic control personnel holding signs and directing the flow of traffic. But drivers still need to slow down while a tow truck’s lights are flashing, Hendricks says.

Types of work zones

Part 18 of the OHS Regulation defines five different types of work zones with defined timelines and procedural requirements. To ensure worker safety, employers must determine which bucket a job falls into.

For example, “emergent work” is quick response work that takes five minutes or less, such as removing a dead animal. “Brief duration work” involves planned jobs taking 15 minutes or less, such as clearing road drains or repairing potholes. Both work types require workers to follow the employer’s written safe work procedures, including what workers are to do if the task cannot be completed within the defined timeline.

Jobs that fall into the categories of “long or short duration work” require:

• A written risk assessment that addresses reasonably foreseeable hazards
• A written traffic control plan that considers traffic control persons, weather conditions, and other factors

Long duration work is work that takes longer than a single daylight shift and applies to all night time work. Alternatively, it can involve “mobile work” — continuous or slow-moving work with stops of 30 minutes or less, such as grass cutting and street cleaning.

Short duration work takes over 15 minutes to complete during a single daylight period.

At emergency scenes where the police are not directing traffic, paramedics, tow operators, and other emergency responders can direct traffic for up to two hours if they’ve been trained to do so. Anything longer than two hours requires a traffic control plan. Employers must follow the appropriate guidelines for each work zone.

Preventing heat stress

Shifting weather patterns from climate change have ushered in additional safety considerations for roadside workers in recent years. High temperatures can put roadside workers at greater risk of heat stress. If heat stress is not recognized and treated in the early stages, more serious conditions such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke may quickly develop. And heat stroke can be fatal.

“We had to learn a lot about the effects of heat during the 2021 heat dome that happened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Froese says. “Paramedics were working in extreme heat — sometimes up to 44 degrees Celsius — and kept working even when they were not feeling very well.”

BC Emergency Health Services has since made some significant changes to their internal policies, Froese says. Paramedics are now given large water bottles to keep in ambulances, along with lighter uniforms for the summer. And a new heat stress risk assessment tool was implemented to help paramedics stay safe while responding to about a million emergency calls that take place in the province each year.

How workers can stay safe

To protect themselves while on a roadside worksite, workers are advised to set up traffic control devices — in the order that drivers will encounter them — and remove them in the opposite order of installation.

“Setting up and taking down a work zone can be the most dangerous parts of the job,” Acres says. “Workers are advised to always face traffic as they set up and as often as possible throughout their shift.”

Once a work zone is in place, a worker will drive through the closure to see if signs, cones, and other devices provide clear guidance to motorists and other road users. Be sure to consider varying weather conditions and different angles. Monitor traffic control devices to ensure they remain in place throughout a shift.

Workers should always report unsafe working conditions to a supervisor and refuse unsafe work, Acres says.

“The onus is on motorists to slow down and leave plenty of space between them and a worksite, with workers maintaining vigilance should someone break the rules of the road,” Acres says.

Find out more

You can find more information on our Working in and around traffic webpage. Learn more about roadside safety by searching on roadsafetyatwork.ca for the “Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment” and “Work Zone Planning” tool kits.

Find additional resources at conezonebc.com by searching for the “Roadside Work Preparation Checklist” and the “What Employers Need to Know to Keep Roadside Workers Safe” guide.

This information originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of WorkSafe Magazine. To read more or to subscribe, visit WorkSafe Magazine.

^1.Motor vehicle incidents: Workers struck by motor vehicles in B.C.

*Please note that WorkSafeBC has no jurisdiction over Telus because telecommunications firms are federally regulated.