Washington – The findings of a recent study show that roadside assistance workers are injured and killed by passing cars more frequently than national collision data indicates.
Data on struck-by car deaths involving tow truck drivers, law enforcement officials, emergency medical professionals, and firemen were gathered by researchers from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety using information from the Emergency Responder Safety Institute and the National Tow List. Next, information from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System was compared with that data.
Between 2015 and 2021, 123 roadside help professionals lost their lives as a result of being struck by cars, according to the report.
According to the foundation, “this represented nearly four times as many as were identified using national crash data alone and slightly more than reported in a federal database of occupational fatalities.”
Additional important discoveries:
89% of the fatalities occurred in areas with 55 mph or higher speed limits.
Over two thirds of those deaths happened in places without lighting, and 63% occurred during the dark.
Sixty-three percent of the crashes involved a car that veered off the road and hit the disabled vehicle, the roadside assistance provider, or the provider’s vehicle.
A paper outlining the study’s conclusions makes a number of recommendations, one of which is to raise public knowledge of the “move over” regulations that are in effect in each of the 50 states.