Protecting Roadside Workers: Field Evaluation of Flares, Cones, and Tow Truck Light Patterns

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety · 2023 · AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

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Summary

This study addresses the high risk of injury and fatality among roadside workers, particularly motor vehicle towing technicians, who face significantly higher injury rates than workers in other industries. Motivated by the need to improve safety countermeasures and increase compliance with “Slow Down and Move Over” laws, the research evaluates the effectiveness of flares, cones, and specific tow truck light patterns in altering passing motorist behavior. The study comprises three coordinated components: an on-road field experiment, a survey of industry personnel, and a review of available countermeasures. The on-road experiment was conducted on a multi-lane highway in Connecticut, simulating a roadside incident with a tow truck and a disabled vehicle. Researchers measured lane occupancy, speed, and lateral position of passing vehicles under various conditions: baseline (no equipment), daytime light patterns, nighttime light patterns, and combinations of these lights with flares or cones. The daytime pattern represented standard emergency lighting, while the nighttime pattern was designed to reduce glare and avoid masking workers. Data were collected using video cameras to track vehicle positions and speeds relative to the shoulder. Concurrently, an online survey assessed towing industry personnel’s attitudes, experiences, and willingness to use flares and cones. Finally, a literature review identified 42 potential countermeasures, ranging from commercial products to nascent technologies. The field results indicated that all tested approaches improved motorist behavior under certain conditions. At night, both daytime and nighttime light patterns caused significant shifts of traffic from the lane closest to the shoulder (Lane 1) to outer lanes. Adding flares to the daytime light pattern at night further decreased Lane 1 occupancy significantly, whereas cones yielded only a negligible, non-significant reduction. When paired with the nighttime light pattern, both flares and cones produced statistically reliable shifts out of Lane 1. Regarding speed and lateral position, flares and cones added to daytime lights at night increased passing speeds and decreased lateral distance, which is undesirable. However, when added to the nighttime light pattern, both countermeasures decreased Lane 1 speeds, with flares showing a statistically reliable reduction. The survey revealed that industry personnel generally hold favorable views toward flares and cones but cited deployment difficulty and cost as barriers. Respondents indicated they would increase usage if research demonstrated effectiveness or if company policies mandated it. The countermeasure review found that while many options exist, the most promising ones are often too expensive, complex, or technologically immature for widespread immediate adoption. The study concludes that traditional countermeasures like flares and cones, when combined with appropriate lighting systems, can effectively improve motorist compliance with safety laws. Specifically, the nighttime light pattern paired with flares or cones offers the best combination of reduced speed and increased lane shifting. The findings suggest that disseminating this evidence to the industry could increase the adoption of these low-cost measures. Furthermore, the alignment between survey responses and the review highlights a need for research into countermeasure deployment and retrieval systems to address industry concerns about convenience and cost, thereby facilitating broader implementation of safety protocols.

Key finding

Deploying flares or cones in combination with tow truck light patterns significantly improved motorist behavior, particularly by reducing lane occupancy in the lane closest to the roadside, with flares showing significant benefits when added to daytime lights at night and both countermeasures enhancing safety when paired with nighttime-specific light patterns.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_aaa_foundation on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified_with_issues.

Topics

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• emergency work zone conspicuity
• vehicle conspicuity
• roadway lighting effects
• perceptual countermeasures

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence