A recent letter of interpretation from OSHA mandates high-visibility warning garments for highway and road construction workers .

“Highway construction workers should not suffer serious or fatal injuries simply because they could not be seen,” said Jordan Barab, acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA.

The new letter supersedes an earlier ruling requiring high-visibility garments only where mandated by the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). OSHA considers road and construction traffic a well-recognized hazard to highway/road construction workers, bolstered by Bureau of Labor Statistics data (2003-2007) showing 425 fatalities in road construction zones.

Image © Stephen Jacoby - Fotolia.com

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