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Piloting a Reporting System for Roadside Safety Incidents
The safety of roadside responders is often placed in jeopardy by the potential dangers posed by passing vehicles. To develop and implement effective protection measures for roadside responders, comprehensive safety data is essential. Previous studies have examined existing data sources to document the characteristics of incidents in which roadside responders were killed while working at the roadside; however, examining only fatalities provides a very limited perspective. It is important to capture information regarding other less severe incidents, including near misses, which occur far too often. The lack of reliable information on the frequency and characteristics of such incidents hinders efforts to understand the working environment of roadside responders and protect them while they assist other road users.