Safety Programs & Protocols

One of UDOT’s strategic goals is “Zero Fatalities, Zero Crashes, and Zero Injuries”. UDOT continually tracks this information on an ongoing basis. This information is used to measure the changes throughout the year and provide insight as to what is driving the changes and what actions can be taken to make improvements. As part of this effort, the department has a public facing dashboard (Strategic Goal Zero Fatalities) where statistics are displayed that include the following Safety Performance Measures:

Traffic Fatalities  

Target: reduce fatality number by more than 2.5% below the three-year average

Suspected Serious Traffic Injuries 

Target: Reduce by 2.5% below the three-year average

Traffic Crashes

Target: Reduce by 2.5% below the three-year average

Employee Fatalities

Target: Achieve zero employee fatalities

Employee Injury Rate

Target: 10% below prior year injury rate

Equipment Damage Rate

Target: Achieve a rate of 6.85 incidents per 200,000 working hours

The Safety Performance Measures listed above help tell the story of the Department’s progress toward reaching the ultimate goal of zero fatalities, zero crashes, and zero injuries. Maintenance forces should review these statistics on a regular basis to determine if there are steps or measures they can take to help reduce fatalities, injuries, and crashes. 

Maintenance activities requiring impacts to travel lanes, bike lanes or shoulders should be done with limited obstruction to traffic.  This includes active transportation traffic using designated bicycle lanes.  Planned impacts should be coordinated with the District Engineer, Region Traffic Engineer and Region Communications Manager.  Emergency impacts should follow Section 18 of the Maintenance MOI.  

Follow the safety provisions of all applicable laws, rules, codes and regulations to protect the safety and convenience of the public and property.  When traffic control devices are used, maintain all traffic control devices according to the UDOT traffic control Standard Drawings and Section 01554 of the UDOT Standard Specifications.  Provide for the safe and efficient movement of vehicular traffic, pedestrians and cyclists when existing facilities are disrupted.  For impacts to sidewalks, bike lanes or other active transportation facilities provide an alternate route for this traffic, when possible.

The Strategic Safety Plan is a culmination of State Government agencies whose goal is to achieve zero fatalities and injuries on Utah’s roads through a comprehensive and integrated plan. For more information on the goals and objectives of the SHSP, please visit their website at the following link:

Utah Strategic Highway Safety Plan

One practice that has been put in place as an effort to learn, understand, and correct patterns of incidents that occur within the department is safety reviews. Safety reviews include the evaluation of work zone incidents and crashes, fatalities, hotspots crashes, and employee incidents and injuries. These safety reviews are often split into the three categories to focus on the areas as to what caused these crashes or injuries to occur, what could have been done to prevent these from happening, and what actions will be taken to correct the situation or the employees behavior and what can others learn from this event. These will be described in more detail below. 

The safety risk managers (Regions and Central) meet with employees who have been involved in or witnessed work zone crashes. For work zone crashes the crew (maintenance, construction, or other depending upon who is overseeing or performing the work) is involved in the review of the incident and the details are discussed openly to understand the events that led to the crash or injury. This process allows for questions to be asked in hopes that it will drive awareness and result in outcomes that will improve how the work zone, employees, and the traveling public are protected. Lessons learned are to be taken back and discussed with the entire crew and shared with other crews to increase safety awareness and provide opportunities for new measures or practices to be implemented. 

Fatalities are discussed at the region director’s (or divisional director’s) staff meetings to assess the events and determine what actions can be taken. The Safety Performance Measures, (statistics on Zero Fatalities, Crashes, and Injuries) are also reviewed to get an understanding of changing patterns or behaviors. If an action plan is developed for a particular fatality, then it is typical to continue to evaluate that location for the effectiveness of the improvements over time. If an employee is involved in a crash or injury, the details of the safety review are discussed amongst the region directors staff to determine if a particular action needs to be taken or what improvements can be made to prevent future crashes or injuries.

When an employee is involved in a crash or has an injury while performing their job duties, a safety review is performed by the safety risk manager, the employee, and the employee’s supervisor. The events that transpired are discussed and action plans are set forth for the employee and to be followed up by the employee’s supervisors. These meetings are held to help the employee gain a better understanding of actions that could have been taken and help others learn from what occurred so that future crashes or injuries can be prevented.

According to the Utah Labor Commission, an injured UDOT employee should immediately report the injury to their employer, supervisor, manager, human resources, or any other individual or department that should receive the report. The employee should also report the injury to a physician. If the employee is unable to report the injury directly, a next-of-kin can report on their behalf. It's important to ensure that the injury report is documented. Employees who don't report an injury within 180 days may be ineligible for workers' compensation benefits.

UDOT has developed the following process for employees to follow when involved in a crash or injury.

Tool box meetings are an essential practice within all UDOT Maintenance Stations that occur on a regularly scheduled basis. It is critical that before Maintenance forces begin their day they spend time discussing the activities and how they will protect each other along with the traveling public while performing their work activities. Maintenance forces should be discussing the protocols they will follow, such as but not limited to: traffic control setups, staging of equipment, vehicles, and materials, the use of equipment, ingress and egress locations, who will be doing what, and/or does everyone have the appropriate personal protect equipment (PPE) as per policy, 

UDOT 06E-02 Personal Protective Equipment and Safety

Maintenance forces hold semi-annual meetings with the Region Traffic and Safety group where a standard agenda item is: crashes, hotspots, and employee injuries. In preparation for the Semi-Annuals meetings, the maintenance stations should gather information concerning areas that have been prone to crashes (all types, vehicular, pedestrian, bicycle, etc) to discuss with the Traffic and Safety group to determine what actions can be taken to mitigate and improve the situation. Employee Injuries are also a topic of this meeting to determine if there are injuries or incidents that have occurred and what is being done, or what has been done to resolve the issue from recurring.  

In addition, future projects should be a point of discussion. This helps the maintenance station be prepared to provide information or discuss issues with the project team to see if they can be addressed as part of the scope of the project.  

Maintenance forces are asked to perform activities that may need assistance in protecting them and providing advance warning for the traveling public. Whether it is a sweeping operation on an interstate with narrow shoulders or placing pothole patching materials on a freeway. Maintenance should be aware that the Incident Management Team (IMT) is an important partner and can provide an additional level of safety by being on scene and providing awareness to the traveling public of activities that are currently taking place. Please contact the Region IMT supervisor to coordinate assistance with the IMT team.

IMT Contact List

All UDOT employees receive a personal presentation regarding safety on the job and in the workplace during New Employee Orientation (NEO). This presentation is delivered by UDOT safety experts. As part of this, the employee will also be assigned to take OSHA 10 training. It is important for a new UDOT employee to discuss any questions or concerns they have regarding the OSHA 10 training with their supervisor to get clarification before performing work activities.   

UDOT Cares

OSHA 10

UDOT has developed a manual that helps UDOT employees have a better understanding of what contractors need to provide to better protect their employees, their subcontractors, the owner (UDOT), and the traveling public when it comes to working on Utah’s transportation system.  

Contractors must utilize all or portions of this manual, whichever is more stringent, as the basis for their own safety and health plans. Each contractor is responsible for protecting the health and safety of its employees while ensuring they have a safe and healthy place to work. This manual stipulates the minimum level of safety compliance required on UDOT projects, which applies to UDOT rights-of-way or temporary contractor facilities solely adjacent to UDOT projects.

Maintenance forces should be aware of the actions contractors are taking when working on maintenance projects. Within the manual there are sections written to address specific types of work, including but not limited to:

• Walking and working surfaces (7.8)

• Fall Protection (7.9)

• Ladders (7.10)

• Signs, Signals, and Barricades (7.14)

• Trenching and Excavation (7.15)

• Concrete Operations (7.19)

• Pipelines (7.21)

• Earthwork Moving Equipment and Trucks (7.24)

The primary function of the station supervisors, Region safety risk manager and contractor, as it relates to construction safety and health, is to monitor and ensure compliance with the safety and health standards required by law, and to administer and enforce the conditions of the contract pertaining to safety, health, and security.

2013 UDOT Safety & Health Manual 

UDOT also provides direction to UDOT employees during times of emergencies and instructs them based upon the time of the emergency to secure the employee and their families first before providing support to others. UDOT’s emergency plan is covered in Chapter 18.4 UDOT Maintenance Roles and Responsibilities During Emergencies.

UDOT Employee Resources