Work Zone Crashes on Dayton-Area Highways: Who Is Responsible When Construction Season Turns Dangerous

Published June 14, 2022 · Injury Law Basics

Orange barrels are back. Every summer, construction season settles over the interstates and state routes around Dayton, and drivers who were cruising at highway speed a mile earlier find themselves squeezed into a single lane between concrete barriers, with a line of brake lights appearing over the next rise. Most days, everyone gets through. Some days, someone does not stop in time.

Work-zone crashes are not just ordinary fender-benders in an unusual location. They can involve more defendants, more insurance, and more evidence than a typical collision, and some of that evidence is controlled by government agencies and private contractors who have no reason to share it unless they are asked, quickly and in writing.

Why work zones produce serious crashes

The same features that protect road crews create hazards for drivers:

• Lane closures and sudden merges force traffic to change lanes at close quarters, which leads to sideswipes.
• Stopped or slowed queues form at the start of a closure, often just past a curve or hill, and drivers who are not paying attention run into the back of them at full speed.
• Narrow lanes with no shoulder leave no room to avoid a stalled car or debris.
• Shifted lanes, temporary pavement markings, and uneven pavement can confuse drivers, especially at night.
• Heavy trucks move through the same narrowed lanes, and a truck that cannot stop in time does far more damage than a car.

When a car traveling at highway speed strikes a stopped line of traffic, the result can be a chain-reaction crash with multiple vehicles and serious injuries in several of them.

Fault starts with the driver who did not stop

In most work-zone crashes, the first responsible party is a driver who was going too fast for conditions, following too closely, or not paying attention. Ohio's speed statute, R.C. 4511.21(A), requires drivers to travel at a speed that is reasonable and proper for traffic, road conditions, and other circumstances, and to be able to stop within the "assured clear distance ahead." A driver who runs into a stopped queue at the start of a lane closure has usually violated that rule. Our rear-end collisions page explains how that rule is used to prove fault.

Ohio also takes construction-zone violations seriously. Under R.C. 4511.98, ODOT may set special speed limits in construction zones, and signs must be posted warning drivers that increased penalties apply for certain violations there. Those increased penalties apply only when the signs meet ODOT's specifications and the violation occurs during hours of actual work. Whether the signs were posted, and whether crews were working, can matter to the citation the driver receives, and the citation can matter to your civil case.

If the at-fault driver was working at the time, such as a delivery driver or a trucker, the employer and its commercial insurance may also be responsible. Our page on car and truck accidents explains how those claims work.

When the work zone itself is part of the problem

Sometimes the driver is not the only one at fault. A work zone is supposed to be laid out according to a traffic-control plan, with advance warning signs, properly tapered lane closures, barrels and barriers in the right places, and flaggers or arrow boards where needed. When that setup is wrong, a crash can be the predictable result. Examples include:

• warning signs placed too close to the closure, or missing altogether;
• a lane shift with no adequate markings, or old markings that were never removed;
• barriers or equipment left in the travel lane;
• an abrupt pavement drop-off left unprotected; or
• a closure that creates a blind queue just over a hill with no advance warning.

Private contractors. Most highway work is performed by private construction companies. A contractor is not a government agency, and when it sets up or maintains a work zone carelessly, it can be held responsible like any other negligent business, though it may argue that it followed plans the public agency approved. Contractors carry commercial liability insurance, which can be a crucial source of recovery when the at-fault driver's coverage is small.

Cities, counties, and townships. Local governments generally have immunity from lawsuits under R.C. 2744.02(A)(1). But R.C. 2744.02(B)(3) makes them liable for injuries caused by their negligent failure to keep public roads in repair and their negligent failure to remove obstructions from public roads. Whether a work-zone hazard fits that exception depends on the facts, and these claims carry procedural requirements of their own. Our page on claims against the government explains the basics.

The State of Ohio and ODOT. Claims against ODOT do not go to the local common pleas court. Under R.C. 2743.02(A)(1), the State has waived its immunity and consented to be sued, but only in the Ohio Court of Claims in Columbus. We discussed how those cases work in our post on suing ODOT over a dangerous highway.

The evidence you need, and who has it

A work-zone case often turns on records that the injured person never sees:

• the traffic-control plan for the project and any changes to it;
• the contractor's daily logs, inspection reports, and photographs of the setup;
• records of when crews were working and when lanes were closed;
• complaints or earlier crash reports in the same work zone;
• 911 recordings and dispatch logs;
• traffic-camera footage, dashcam video, and nearby business video; and
• the vehicles' event data recorders, which show speed and braking before impact.

Some of this is a public record, but much of it is held by private contractors or can be lost in routine record-keeping. Video is overwritten. Work zones are reconfigured as the project moves, sometimes within days, so the layout that existed at the moment of your crash may soon be gone. Our guide chapter on gathering evidence while it still exists explains how preservation letters protect this material. In work-zone cases, we send them right away.

What this means for you

If you were hurt in a construction-zone crash this summer, the driver who hit you may not be the only party responsible, and that driver's insurance may not be the only coverage available. Contractors and public agencies can share responsibility when a work zone is poorly designed or maintained, but proving it requires records that change or disappear quickly, and claims against government bodies come with their own rules and forums.