Municipal Crossing Guard Fatally Injured When Struck by a Motor Vehicle – Massachusetts

Details

• Personal Author:
  Davis, Letitia ; Fiore, Michael A.
• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Project (Massachusetts FACE) ; Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  On May 23, 2012 a 71-year-old female municipal crossing guard (victim) was fatally injured when she was struck by a motor vehicle while assisting school children in crossing a roadway at an unsignalized pedestrian crosswalk. The victim stepped into the roadway crosswalk and was then struck by a pickup truck. The pickup truck traveled a few feet after striking the victim before coming to a complete stop. Multiple people placed calls for emergency medical services (EMS). EMS and local police arrived within minutes and transported the victim to a local hospital where she died later that same day. Contributing factors identified in this investigation were that crosswalk markings were in poor condition and of the least visible type of marking and there were no traffic control devices present at the crosswalk location to warn motorists of the crosswalk location. The Massachusetts FACE Program concluded that to prevent similar occurrences in the future, municipalities should: 1. Develop a school route plan that meets the standards set forth in the national Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)
  
  2. Consider additional measures, including installing signs and flashing lights, to ensure crosswalks are clearly visible to motorists
  
  3. Ensure that the design of equipment supplied to workers, such as stop paddles, does not prevent employees from using the equipment
  
  4. Provide and ensure that crossing guards are wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment, including American National Standard Institute (ANSI) compliant high-visibility safety apparel, when working along roadways
  
  5. Ensure that crossing guards are provided with initial training and annual refresher trainings
  
  and 6. Provide work environments for employees that, at a minimum, meet all relevant Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and industry accepted standards of practice per the Department of Labor Standards policy.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Occupational Health Personal Protective Equipment Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 1 Personal-protection Personal-protective-equipment Safety-education Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Warning-devices Warning-signs Warning-systems Work-environment Work-operations

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Motor Vehicles
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE12MA010
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044665
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2014-108831
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 12MA010, 2013 Jan ; :1-12
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2005/07/01
• End Date:
  2026/06/30
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5effd123b746d8e5711172da6bb226ad9ab9a5035727f4be858d25614706ccb4d2904225089e8d87ecef60245ffdf78781a8d799eb2180c39a3510ba54420bf2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/165136/cdc_165136_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 538.30 KB ]