Those of us who have spent our careers in the heavy/highway construction industry understand there are inherent risks in the work we do. We work around heavy equipment, changing conditions and, perhaps most dangerously, traffic moving only inches away from the men and women doing their jobs.
We train our employees. We provide personal protective equipment. We design traffic control plans and continually look for better ways to separate workers from traffic. But there is one risk we can never completely control – the actions of motorists traveling through our work zones.
The statistics demonstrate just how serious that risk remains.
In 2024, 850 people lost their lives in work zone crashes across the United States. Speeding continues to be a significant factor in fatal work zone crashes, and workers on foot remain particularly vulnerable. Nationwide, more than 500 roadside workers – including construction workers, law enforcement officers, first responders and tow truck operators – have been killed since 2020.
And sometimes statistics become painfully personal.
Earlier this year, 25-year-old Kokosing Construction employee Jordan Thomas was struck and killed when a vehicle entered a closed section of I-70 in Downtown Columbus. Jordan went to work that night expecting to return home. He never did.
That is why efforts now underway in both Washington, D.C., and Columbus are so important to OCA and our members.
At the federal level, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania have introduced the bipartisan Safer Roads for Those Who Serve Act of 2026 (S. 4245). The legislation would improve the collection and analysis of roadside worker injury and fatality data, require states experiencing increases in worker injuries and fatalities to address those trends in their highway safety planning, expand public awareness of Move Over laws and roadside dangers, continue research into worker safety and incorporate roadside-worker safety considerations into certain federal infrastructure programs.
Our national partners are helping lead the advocacy effort. The Associated General Contractors of America has led a coalition of national transportation, construction, safety and infrastructure organizations urging Congress to advance S. 4245 as part of the next surface transportation reauthorization. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association has likewise made stronger work zone protections an important part of its federal reauthorization recommendations.
Ohio has an opportunity – and a responsibility – to act as well.
Substitute House Bill 82, now named the Trenton Gallaway Work Zone Safety Act, would strengthen Ohio law governing traffic offenses committed in construction zones. Among its provisions, the substitute bill expands the traffic violations subject to construction-zone penalties and strengthens requirements governing the posting of construction-zone signs. It requires signage for construction zones regardless of their expected duration or length and establishes requirements for signage both approaching and within construction zones when workers are present.
These are practical steps intended to change driver behavior and provide greater protection to the men and women whose workplace happens to be alongside moving traffic.
OCA members have been directly involved in advocating for H.B. 82. During testimony before the House Public Safety Committee, representatives of our industry stood alongside organized labor, safety organizations and, most importantly, family members of workers who have paid the ultimate price. OCA Legislative Director Michelle Holdgreve testified in support of the legislation, as did representatives of OCA member companies. The committee ultimately reported the substitute bill favorably by a 10-0 vote.
That brings me to a question I have difficulty answering:
Why is passing legislation addressing roadside safety so difficult?
Perhaps part of the answer is that highway construction workers are largely invisible to the public until a motorist encounters a work zone. Perhaps it is because most drivers believe the person speeding, texting or failing to pay attention is someone else. Or perhaps, as is too often the case in the legislative process, even issues on which there appears to be broad agreement must compete with hundreds of other priorities for attention.
Whatever the reason, none of those explanations is particularly satisfying when a family has lost a son, daughter, husband, wife, father or mother simply because they went to work alongside one of our highways.
There will always be legitimate discussion about the details of legislation – what penalties are appropriate, how laws should be enforced and which safety measures will be most effective. That discussion is part of the legislative process. But disagreement over details should not prevent us from agreeing on the objective.
We can continue improving our training, traffic control, positive protection and technology such as speed enforcement cameras – and we must. Contractors have an obligation to do everything reasonably possible to protect their employees. But there comes a point where the construction barrel ends and personal responsibility begins. And drivers bear that responsibility.
And government has a responsibility to establish and enforce laws that recognize the extraordinary risk faced by people whose workplace is within inches of moving traffic.
The question should not be whether we can eliminate every work zone accident. We cannot. The question should be whether we have done everything reasonably within our power to prevent the next one.
For the families who have already lost someone, legislation comes too late. For the thousands of men and women working behind the barrels today, it does not.
They should not have to lose another coworker before we decide their safety deserves our attention