Closing the Distance

A simple spacing standard is keeping TxDOT crews out of harm’s way

By Cathleen Draper

In 2011, TxDOT launched its Safety Mission Zero campaign, meant to eliminate preventable vehicle incidents, employee injuries, and most importantly, employee fatalities.

Those include backing incidents and striking fixed objects, which make the top of the list every year according to Robert Godina, former safety operations section director in the occupational safety division of TxDOT. To help eliminate vehicle-on-vehicle strikes and the possibility of backing over teammates, be it a TxDOT employee or contractor, TxDOT developed its 15/50 rule, a now-integral element of Internal Traffic Control Plans (ITCP) on the job.

“A review of vehicle incident trends revealed a need for targeted action, with efforts concentrated on improving how equipment is staged to reduce risk,” Godina explained. “We noticed quite a few, what we call ‘friendly fire,’ incidents when we were not taking the time to think about departure upon arrival. We were not thinking about the hazards of parking too close together.”

A job’s ITCP coordinates the flow of vehicles, equipment, and workers within a work zone, and addressing equipment clustering was determined to be a key factor in preventing incidents and improving employee safety. The 15/50 rule requires that vehicles be parked 15 feet away from each other side to side, and 50 feet from the back bumper to the front bumper of the vehicle behind it.

“By creating space, blind spots are reduced, and it helps us reduce the need for possibly backing up to clear bumpers,” Godina said.

Texas Asphalt spoke with Godina, who retired from TxDOT in July, to learn more about the rule, from how it’s put into action on the job and the importance of culture in its implementation.

How did the committee tasked with creating this safety measure determine 15 feet and 50 feet as the safest distances?

Considering the amount of space that we have behind the cones—where the work is actually being done—we felt we had to be intentional about that decision. Out in West Texas, the terrain tends to be more flat and open, so the extra room lets us keep more distance between vehicles. In East Texas, where it’s forest and the right of way is not as wide, we’ve got to be more careful on that spacing. We felt 15 feet side to side and 50 feet bumper to bumper was a good distance to help us eliminate risks in both situations.

How does 15/50 improve visibility and reduce blind spots?

Whenever we talk about improving visibility, space is our friend. When someone can intentionally increase the space around vehicles, that allows the operator to identify hazards around them, whether it’s workers on foot, that piece of equipment, or that fixed object, like a parked truck. As far as blind spots go, hazards comes in all shapes and forms. Some pieces of equipment inherently have worse blind spots than others, and to that effect, what we like to do is compensate by creating space, especially when we’re staging that equipment. There are other advancements that folks use. There’s nothing wrong with cameras, nothing wrong with proximity sensors or backup sensors, but those are tools, and we describe them as such. They don’t— and weren’t intended to replace what’s going on in between your ears.

What if there isn’t enough space in a work zone to implement 15/50, and how can leaders address it?

There might be perfectly good reasons why 15/50 isn’t working out, but you have to understand the operations first before making recommendations. Maybe the culprit is the shop vehicle, or maybe it’s the vehicle that has the materials that we need right now beside us. Know the operation, ask questions, collaborate, and then you go into your coaching mode to remind workers of what could happen.

How do you help workers build an understanding of the importance of 15/50?

It’s amazing what communication can do for a workforce. Information is power. We have 13,000-plus employees at TxDOT, and we publish an end-of-week report that informs them what happened in our work areas that week. It goes out every Friday.

We put information in their hands, and we give just enough information so that they can learn from those incidents and injuries, especially if it’s a backing incident or striking a fixed object, or worse yet, if an employee is caught in between equipment or backed over. These are real-life scenarios. The weekly report includes items that are happening with our contractors in our work zones as well, because even though they don’t work for TxDOT, they’re still our brothers and sisters. We’re all in the same game together. At the same time, we ask our crews to think about and discuss ways to prevent these items that are happening.

How important is training to the implementation of 15/50?

The mind is an incredible tool. Over the years, we’ve realized it all boils down to building a habit. When addressing hazards, presenting graphs and trends to employees is one of the most eff ective approaches; their reaction makes it clear how impactful they are. When expectations are established and reinforced through consistent coaching and follow-through, the training component aligns naturally. TxDOT employees have also implemented 15/50 in their local yards.

We’re setting the table of expectations through training and play of the day meetings so that when we do get boots on the ground, it’s just automatic, it’s a habit. Little by little we’re getting better at it.

How does TxDOT enforce 15/50?

The follow-through piece is often more difficult because now workers are out there in the zone and things are happening fast, conditions are changing by the minute, and they might forget. It is very important to collaborate, to coach one another up, to give ideas about how to eliminate clustering. Some of those answers are simple, but you cannot get there until you take the time to talk, ask questions, and explain.

It’s important to understand the operational sequence of the day. We may have five pieces of equipment available, but only three are required at the beginning of the shift, while the remaining two will not be used until the final stages. Those unused units can still create congestion in the work area. We encourage employees to consider this during the planning phase. If the sweeper will not be needed until later, it should be staged elsewhere to preserve space for vehicle movement.

As a safety professional driving through, walking through, being in those work zones, it’s obvious if the crew has accomplished 15/50 or part of it—or even tried. Coaching and encouraging folks and thanking workers for following through on the process all contribute to the ongoing success. The approach isn’t punitive; it’s about reinforcing the right behaviors.

How important is an open line of communication to ensuring worker safety?

The biggest thing is when we talk about saving lives. We hear a lot from our contractors and other folks across the nation where an employee might have been backed over or caught in between equipment. It’s one of the items that we discuss, not only vehicle-on-vehicle incidents, but the possibility of backing over someone because we didn’t do a good job of staging the equipment. Or catching an employee in between two pieces of metal, and the human body will always lose that battle.

We talk about those items and the likelihood of them occurring, but we also highlight the success when it doesn’t happen at all. Our employees’ number one goal is to make it home safe at the end of the day. We’re borrowing them for the work shift, and we give them back to their families. We say, “They expect you to come home at the end of the shift, your kiddos expect you to walk through that door at the end of the day.” It’s up to us during that work shift to make sure we give them every opportunity to make that happen. Through these discussions, through the expectations, and through reporting incidents and injuries—and learning from those incidents and injuries—little by little, we’re training the mind that we need to spread out a little bit.

What role does culture play in keeping 15/50 at the front of mind, especially for new employees?

Culture is, in my mind, all about what you are going to do when you see a hazard. We have a district engineer that says, “The standard you walk by is the standard you accept.” That’s your culture. It’s as simple as if you see spilled water in the hallway and don’t do anything about it. The one behind you might not see it and slip and fall. That’s your culture—you walked right by it and didn’t act on it.

Within our safety culture, we’re always trying to make it about employee behavior. It’s all about what happens in between the ears. We want to make sure that they know what the processes are, the intent of them, the benefit, and what could happen if we fail. All of these condition the mind to accept the challenge and buy into the process so as new employees are hired, our safety culture is already established. When that new employee comes in, now he or she is going to be part of that success.

How can TxDOT instill the principles of 15/50 in non-TxDOT contractors and industry partners and help them incorporate it into their own safety programs?

It’s all about the sharing of the information during pre-construction meetings, when the contractors and TxDOT get together to talk about the project, so that we can all get on the same page about mutual expectations.

Our industry partners and contractors often come in with successful safety programs. And workers and inspectors in TxDOT work zones are noticing what TxDOT does, and it’s impressive when they start asking us questions. We’re always happy to share the “upper story”—the best practices and the lessons learned. We’re open about our past safety performance and the challenges we faced before this safety transition, and we’re equally clear about the vision we’re working toward now.

We’re not perfect. We’re going to learn from our shortcomings, and we’re going to talk about it. We’re going to be brutally honest about it, because at the end of the day we’ve got to get home safe.