Ensuring Safety Innovations Work in Real Work Zone Conditions

To the casual driver, providing traffic control and safety services in a work zone may appear to be a simple, monotonous job – and it’s not. During even a short shift, hundreds of decisions need to be made (almost instantly) and all of those decisions affect the safety of people in the immediate vicinity. For this reason and as part of our commitment to improving our employees’ safety and the safety of everyone in work zones, AWP agreed to test a device intended to help reduce flagger fatigue and “drift.”

Improving Their Safety and Yours

The StandGuard Temporary Portable Standing Assistant is lightweight, slightly elevated and finished with a highly-visible, bright orange coating. Among its advantages to our Protectors, the device provides an obvious visual reference so they can quickly identify and return to the spot designated as the safest and most visible for drivers traveling the route.

To learn more about the standing assistant, please see this article on the Roads and Bridges website.

Developed by PSS Innovations, the standing assistant was designed to alleviate “flagger drift” and general fatigue, which can occur when protectors stand in one spot, on a hard surface, in the outdoor elements. “Drift” simply refers to veering off from the identified best safety zone for a particular protector job – a highly important spot, that not surprisingly can change several times during a shift. The StandGuard unit, at only 5 pounds, can be moved easily, when needed, and yet is heavy enough to stay in place.

All flaggers – including AWP protectors, who are prepared well beyond OSHA-Required Safety Training and ATSSA Flagger Training & Certification courses – can be affected by the often-challenging conditions in work zones. We were pleased to be asked to test the standing assistant, and happy to note that it was helpful to our crews in work zones near and far.