Mitigating and Preventing MoDOT Safety-Related Incidents Through Root-Cause Elimination and Utilization of Leading Safety Indicators

Chammout, Bahaa; El-adaway, Islam · 2024 · ROSA P / Missouri. Department of Transportation. Construction and Materials Division

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Summary

This study addresses the persistent safety risks in roadway work zones, which contribute to significant fatalities and injuries for both workers and the public. Motivated by the lack of comprehensive research integrating diverse safety factors and stakeholder perspectives, the authors aimed to identify critical incident causes and evaluate the Missouri Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) performance in mitigating these risks. The research sought to provide a benchmark for improving work zone safety practices through root-cause elimination and the utilization of leading safety indicators. The methodology comprised two primary phases. First, a systematic literature review identified 37 factors influencing work zone safety, categorized into design, roadway, work, driver, temporal, and state-related variables. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was employed to map interconnections among these factors, revealing that design-related factors received disproportionate attention in existing literature compared to driver- and state-related factors. Second, surveys were administered to 298 MoDOT employees and contractors to assess the criticality of these factors, evaluate MoDOT’s performance, and gauge compliance with safety policies. The survey data underwent reliability testing using Cronbach’s alpha and clustering analysis to group factors by importance. The findings indicate that driver-related factors, specifically driver attention and unsafe driving, are perceived as the most critical to worker safety, while vehicle conditions and technological sophistication were rated least critical. Clustering analysis grouped driver, work, and design factors into the highest criticality tier. Regarding MoDOT’s performance, contractors consistently rated the agency lower than employees did, highlighting a divergence in stakeholder perspectives. Both groups identified law enforcement presence as the area requiring the most significant improvement. Additionally, while MoDOT employees reported strong knowledge of safety policies, compliance with specific protocols, particularly those governing backing movements, was suboptimal. Backing incidents are a leading cause of occupational fatalities in work zones. Employees also expressed lower satisfaction with the timeliness of incident investigations and the effectiveness of subsequent improvements, despite high ratings for general policy familiarity. The study concludes that enhancing work zone safety requires a multi-faceted approach focusing on driver behavior, improved law enforcement presence, and stricter adherence to backing safety protocols. The identified disparities between employee and contractor perceptions underscore the need for collaborative decision-making processes. By addressing these specific deficiencies, MoDOT and other transportation agencies can better mitigate risks, foster a stronger safety culture, and reduce the severity and frequency of work zone incidents. The research provides a structured framework for prioritizing safety interventions based on empirical stakeholder feedback and comprehensive factor analysis.

Key finding

Driver-related factors, particularly driver attention and unsafe driving, were identified as the most critical determinants of work zone safety, while law enforcement presence and backing policy compliance were identified as key areas requiring improvement.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Sample size: 298

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_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

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

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• work zones
• emergency work zone conspicuity
• incidence prevalence
• causation analyses
• regulatory evaluation

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: metric or index