WYDOT Certifies Flagger Training

The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) has certified the National Safety Council's (NSC) Flagger Training Course for use in the state of Wyoming on streets and highways under the jurisdiction of WYDOT.

Flaggers are the highway construction workers that direct safe passage of traffic through and around work areas. NSC's flagger training program is aimed at reducing injuries and deaths that occur each year in highway construction zones. The program is also designed to minimize confusion among motorists by standardizing flagging procedures on our nation's highways.

Wyoming joins the Office of Highway Safety, the Federal Highway Administration, and several other state Departments of Transportation that have reviewed this program and found it appropriate for use. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, workers in the roadway construction industry are employed in one of America's most dangerous occupations.

"Employers and workers in this industry not only face hazards from working around heavy construction materials, vehicles and equipment," said David Sneed, Executive Director of the Wyoming-Montana Safety Council, a chapter of the NSC, "they are also exposed to dangers posed by traffic, often passing their work areas at high speeds."

In 2000 there were 1,093 people killed and 49,557 people injured in work zone crashes up 26 percent from 1999.

"Controlling traffic through work areas is one of the most important -- and dangerous -- operations in construction maintenance," said Sneed. "The NSC Flagger Training Course is a comprehensive skill-building session that meets federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) guidelines for controlling traffic through construction work areas."

In the Flagger Training Program, the NSC follows the OSHA lead in use of hard hats. The NSC also trains flaggers covers to use the stop/slow paddle as the primary means of authority and about the red flag.

For more information on the Flagger Training Program in Wyoming, call the Wyoming-Montana Safety Council at 1-888-547-2330.

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