Baltimore bridge tragedy shows America's highway workers face death on the job at any time

Michael DiMaggio's nephew told him the news this week of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. And the pain of his sister's loss last year came flooding back.

"We wished nobody else would have to feel what we do," said DiMaggio, 38, of Annapolis, Maryland. "It's heartbreaking."

For many family members of the nation's highway workers, it's grief that repeatedly plays out against a deadly landscape that sees laborers killed or severely injured amid dangerous job sites, negligent drivers, and unpredictable catastrophes such as the bridge collapse. Just three months into 2024, road construction workers have been killed on the job in Oklahoma, Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.

Sybil DiMaggio was one of six construction workers killed on a construction site on the Baltimore Beltway when two cars going well over 100 mph collided, causing one to plow through the work zone, exactly a year ago on Friday.

On Tuesday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for six construction workers who went missing after a cargo ship struck the Baltimore bridge and triggered its collapse into the Patapsco River. Considering the water's temperature of between 46 and 48 degrees and poor underwater visibility, officials said they did not believe they would find any of the workers alive.

The workers presumed dead are among thousands of construction workers killed while working on highway construction sites in recent years. More than 2,200 highway workers lost their lives on a highway work zone between 2003 and 2020, an average of 123 every year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"I'm mourning my sister, but I'm mourning a loss of my community. I'm mourning a loss of other construction workers that were just once again trying to improve our roadways," DiMaggio said. "The situation is completely different . . . but at the same time there's so many similarities."

Watch:Francis Scott Key bridge collapse dispatch: 'The whole bridge just fell down'

'It ended up taking her life'

With over a decade of construction work experience under her belt, Sybil DiMaggio was no stranger to the industry when she first began work on the site off of Interstate 695. But the lack of some safety protocols made her uncomfortable, she told her loved ones, including her brother. Her concerns were serious enough that her husband even told her the family was ready to figure something out if she needed to quit, Michael DiMaggio said.

"She felt like all the safety precautions weren't in proper order, but she had to go to work. She had to make a living," he said. "It ended up taking her life."

DiMaggio said his sister drove her personal car to the work site – the company didn't provide special vehicles for her to travel between parts of the site. "Sometimes, she felt like she didn't have enough power in her own personal car to merge onto the major highway that the construction site was on into oncoming traffic," he said.

Then, at around 12:30 p.m. on March 22 last year, an Acura TLX collided with a Volkswagen Jetta in the middle of a work zone off of a patch of Interstate 695 in Woodlawn County, Maryland, according to a report from an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation. The crash sent the Acura spinning out of control through an opening in a concrete barrier between the work zone and the highway, where it struck and killed six workers aged 31 to 52, including DiMaggio.

Two of the victims, Mahlon Simmons II and Mahlon Simmons III, were father and son.

Lisa Adrienne Lea, the driver of the Acura, was 'traveling at 121 mph in a posted 55 mph zone,' according to indictment papers. She is awaiting trial on multiple counts of criminally negligent manslaughter, failing to control a vehicle's speed and avoid collision, reckless driving, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Melachi Brown, who drove the Jetta, pleaded guilty in January to six counts of negligent manslaughter with an automobile, according to court records. Brown's indictment says he was 'traveling at 122 mph in a posted 55 mph zone.'

The NTSB said in an email the investigation into the crash is ongoing and no conclusions or probable cause has been determined.

Road worker deaths across the nation

Families of road construction crews, local unions and state transportation officials have sounded the alarm on work zone safety across the nation for years, but grim highway worker deaths continue to make headlines.

Earlier this week, a driver reportedly asleep at the wheel crashed into a construction crew that was working on a bridge embankment, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. One worker died instantly, and two others were seriously injured.

"This is yet another reminder to stay alert and watch for vehicles and/or workers on the side of the road," the patrol said.

Last month, a road worker and state trooper were killed in crashes on the same highway less than three hours apart in Georgia. Trooper Chase Redner was hit on Interstate 75 as he was investigating the death of a construction worker on the same road earlier that day, the Miami Herald reported.

In Missouri, two families continue to push state officials for work zone protections more than two years after their loved ones were killed on the job, local news station KSDK reported. Kaitlyn Anderson, who was five months pregnant, and James Brooks were killed when a driver crashed into them as they were striping a road in November 2021, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The following year, a Missouri bridge under construction collapsed on four contractors, trapping them in a mixture of wet concrete and rubble, local news station KCTV reported. One man, 22-year-old Connor R. Ernst, died in the collapse, authorities said, while the rest of the crew managed to escape with some injuries. 

In Washington state, road officials expressed frustration over repeated accidents after six construction workers attempting to fix potholes on Interstate 5 were hospitalized in a crash earlier this year. A suspected drunk driver slammed into the workers’ parked pickup truck at about 60 mph, pushing it into the rear of another workers’ truck, the Columbian reported. Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance supervisor Brad Clark told the Columbian he sees work zone crashes every month.

A local union in Massachusetts questioned whether two construction workers were properly trained to use an aerial lift they were operating after a deadly fall in 2019, the Engineering News-Record reported. The workers were in a lift preparing a highway bridge for demolition when they fell roughly 50 feet onto a floating barge. One worker died instantly, and the other suffered serious injuries.

Regulators and researchers search for safety solutions

In the wake of the crash, the Maryland Department of Occupational Safety and Health partially cited the state's Highway Administration for failing to post clear traffic signs near the crash.

The tragedy also triggered some legislative efforts to address highway worker safety. The office of Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller convened a Work Zone Safety Work Group that recommended an increase in Maryland's citation for work zone speed violations, currently the lowest in the nation at $40.

"I feel like it would be extremely helpful," Michael DiMaggio said of an increase in speeding fines. "I don't necessarily think that's a big enough fine to tell you the truth, but we need to start in the right direction."

Another recommendation to increase highway worker safety zeroes in on internal traffic control plans, which separate workers on foot from larger equipment and vehicles inside a work zone, said Ryan Papariello, safety and health specialist for the Laborers' Health and Safety Fund of North America.

"Those are set up before the job begins," said Papariello. "They basically communicate with everyone on site – vendors, whoever is entering in from the traveling public into the work zone."

Other devices used in work zones can serve a similar purpose, like mobile barriers or trailer-mounted attenuators, he said.

Although internal traffic control plans improve worker safety, there are no federal regulations that mandate their use, Papariello said. "Internal Traffic Control Plans - that's the answer - they need to be codified and regulated for contractors to use every day."

Still, part of the responsibility lies with the public to slow down and obey speed limits in work zones. "But, we do need the traveling public to slow down, to pay attention, and to abide by those rules," he said.

After the tragedy, Michael DiMaggio took in his sister's son, now 26, after he graduated college. "He no longer had a home to live in," he said.

"You can't rush trying to find housing when you're trying to get through college and graduate on time, never mind then trying to find a house and grieve and a job all at the same time," he said. "It was brutal."

DiMaggio said the family is still grieving, and the news of the bridge's collapse brought back the pain they've felt since the loss of his sister.

"Six other construction workers and their families are now dealing with the same thing that we're dealing with," he said. "There's no words to express it. It opens up the wounds even more than you thought they could."

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.