Interaction of Vehicle Speed and Auditory Detection of Backup Alarms AKA: Can the Construction Worker Get Out of the Way?

Abstract

Accident and incident reports have indicated that construction workers, who comprise only a fraction of the industrial work force, suffer more fatal injuries than in any other industry. Many of these accidents and incidents involve workers being struck and run over by a reversing vehicle. During performance of their duties, construction workers are frequently in the vicinity of backup alarms mounted on a variety of vehicles, each with different backing speeds. Due to the loud ambient noise prevalent on many construction sites, workers may wear hearing protection devices, which can affect their ability to detect these backup alarms. An experiment was conducted in free-field conditions to determine the distance at which normal-hearing listeners who wore a high-attenuation earmuff could detect a standard backup alarm signal. Based on the data collected, a relationship was established between the minimum-required backup alarm detection distance and the reversing speeds for several typical vehicles.