More Than Half of Highway Construction Firms Report Work Zone Accident

• About 60% of highway construction firms report having at least one car crash into their work zones during the past year, according to the results of a new highway work zone study conducted by the Associated General Contractors of America and HCSS.
• Motorists are almost twice as likely to die in a work zone crash as construction workers.
• The new data highlights the need for stronger work zone safety laws and better enforcement, the groups said.
• The association is pushing Congress to require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to collect comprehensive data on work zone crashes, including who is killed or injured in those crashes and to require states to create plans to reduce work zone crashes.
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Mine Workers Union Boss Talks With RFK Jr. on Safety Cuts

• United Mine Workers union President Cecil Roberts told his group’s members that he’s had a telephone call with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the importance of NIOSH to his industry.
• According to reports, Roberts said that in his call with Kennedy, he was able to express his passion about the importance of maintaining NIOSH, “but I don’t know if he tried to do anything with it or not.”
• “The entire Kennedy family had a love for coal miners and a deep respect for coal miners. But they say every family has got somebody that doesn’t follow the trend, right? I’m the one person here that has spoken to Secretary Kennedy, kind of by accident,” Roberts told a union rally last week.
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