Road Construction and Highway Work Zone Accidents in Michigan

Michigan recorded 5,942 work zone crashes in 2025, killing 25 people and injuring 1,199, according to MDOT’s preliminary data; of those killed, 22 were motorists, and three were workers. The national picture is the same shape: federal data counted 850 work zone deaths in 2024, and about four in five of the people killed were drivers and passengers, not crews. Both kinds of victims share the zone: road workers on foot, separated from live traffic by cones and barrels, and the drivers and passengers navigating lane shifts and stopped queues around them.

Michigan responds on the criminal side with real penalties: fines double for moving violations in work zones, work zone speeding carries elevated points, and under Andy’s Law, a driver whose qualifying violation injures someone in a work zone faces up to a year in prison, up to 15 years, and a $7,500 fine for causing a death. But criminal penalties compensate no one. The civil claim-, who can be sued, in which court, and by when- depends heavily on whether you were working in the zone or driving through it, and on whether a government agency is among the defendants. Vahdat Weisman Law work injury attorneys represent injured workers and injured motorists alike. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.

Road Workers Struck by Traffic

For the flagger, paver, surveyor, or utility worker hit by a passing vehicle, several systems respond at once, and they coordinate rather than stack. Workers’ comp pays medical care and wage-loss benefits from your employer regardless of fault. Michigan no-fault provides PIP benefits under the priority rules for pedestrians: generally, your own or a household auto policy first, then the Assigned Claims Plan with its capped benefits, and what comp pays is subtracted from what PIP owes, an offset that makes managing the two carriers part of the case. Then comes the liability claim against the driver, for pain and suffering where the injury involves death, serious impairment of body function, or permanent serious disfigurement, and for excess economic losses. That claim can reach the vehicle’s owner and the driver’s employer too, which matters in zones full of dump trucks and fleet vehicles, and where the driver was uninsured or underinsured, UM and UIM coverage may be the real source of recovery. A drunk driver adds a potential dram shop claim against the licensed establishment that served him while visibly intoxicated, with its own strict rules, including notice within 120 days of retaining a lawyer; see our drunk driving accident page.

Worker cases also look at the zone itself. Traffic control in a work zone is engineered: taper lengths, barrel spacing, signage, arrow boards, buffer vehicles, and flagger placement come from traffic control plans governed by the Michigan Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and MDOT’s specifications, and multiple companies typically share responsibility: the prime contractor, subcontractors, and sometimes a separate traffic control company that set and maintained the devices. A worker put on foot in a gap the plan should have closed, a taper that dumped traffic into the crew, a buffer vehicle the plan required that never got positioned: those facts can support third-party claims against companies that are not your employer, running alongside comp, with the comp carrier’s lien and the one-year rules governed by the same statute as every third-party work injury; our third-party work injury page explains the mechanics.

Drivers and Passengers Hurt in Work Zones

Most work zone casualties are people in vehicles, and their cases follow Michigan crash law with the zone added as a layer of both evidence and defendants. No-fault PIP pays medical and wage benefits under your coverage regardless of fault. The at-fault driver, the one who rear-ended the queue, changed lanes across the taper, or sped through the shift, faces the liability claim under the same threshold rules as any Michigan crash.

Sometimes the zone itself caused the crash: signage that appeared too late for traffic speed, tapers and crossovers that violated the governing standards, barrels walling off an exit with no warning, pavement edges dropped without protection, devices scattered and never reset after a night’s work. Private contractors who built and maintained the traffic control are not shielded by the government’s immunity, and where their own work created the hazard, Michigan law supports negligence claims against them, with the traffic control plan, the MMUTCD, and the contract documents defining what they were supposed to do. Claims against the road agencies themselves, MDOT or a county road commission, are far narrower. Governmental immunity’s highway exception covers the improved portion of the roadway designed for vehicular travel, essentially the road surface itself, and Michigan’s Supreme Court has held it does not impose a duty regarding traffic control devices like signs and barrels. On top of that, a written notice with statutorily required contents is due within 120 days, suit must come within two years, and claims against the state run through the Court of Claims with procedures of their own. The practical rule: the contractor claims are usually the stronger and longer-lived track, the government track is narrow and expires fast, and both need evaluating immediately.

Evidence in a Place Built to Disappear

Work zones are temporary by definition. The taper that caused the crash is reconfigured next week and gone next month, which makes early evidence work matter more than in an ordinary crash case. The zone as it existed that night lives in photographs, dashcam and traffic camera footage, 911 audio, and witness accounts. The zone as it was supposed to exist lives in the traffic control plan, the contracts, the lane-closure permits, and the daily diaries and device-inspection logs contractors keep. The difference between the two is often where the case is won, and it is assembled by preservation demand and discovery. The vehicles matter too: event data recorders, fleet telematics, and post-crash inspections disappear into repairs and salvage on their own schedules. If you or a family member can safely photograph the zone soon after a crash, do it; either way, get counsel moving before the configuration changes.

If the Worst Happened

A death in a work zone, worker or motorist, opens a wrongful death claim, brought through the estate by a personal representative, alongside the systems above: comp death benefits for a worker’s dependents, generally 80 percent of after-tax wages for up to 500 weeks plus a capped burial benefit, no-fault survivor benefits where the no-fault act applies, and the liability claims against drivers and contractors. Criminal prosecution under Andy’s Law may proceed as well; it neither replaces nor is required for the civil case. Our workplace wrongful death and car accident wrongful death pages cover the two paths.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Work zone cases demand speed on vanishing evidence, comfort with workers’ comp, no-fault, and negligence at once, and attention to the notice deadlines that run quietly in the background. We photograph and preserve early, obtain the traffic control plans and contractor logs, sort the contractor structure, and calendar every deadline from day one. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, we are available 24/7, and we serve clients in English and Spanish from our Livonia office. Related pages: car accidents, truck accidents, and on-the-job vehicle accidents.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I was flagging, and a car came through the taper and hit me. Who do I have claims against? Potentially several parties: comp from your employer automatically, PIP benefits under the pedestrian priority rules, a liability claim against the driver and possibly the vehicle’s owner or the driver’s employer, and claims against other zone contractors if the traffic control setup put you in an indefensible position. The zone’s configuration that day is evidence, and it disappears fast, so the investigation should start immediately.
• The driver who hit our crew was drunk. Does that change the case? It adds to it. Beyond the liability claim, Michigan’s dram shop law can reach a licensed establishment that served a visibly intoxicated driver, with a written notice requirement running 120 days from when you retain a lawyer and a rule requiring the drunk driver to be named and kept in the case. Criminal prosecution under Andy’s Law and the drunk driving statutes proceeds separately, and a conviction helps, but the civil case does not wait for it.
• I crashed because the lane shift made no sense and there was no warning. Do I have a case even though no other car hit me? Possibly. Single-vehicle work zone crashes caused by defective traffic control, missing signs, improper tapers, and unprotected drop-offs can support negligence claims against the contractors who built and maintained the zone. Your PIP benefits apply regardless of fault. Whether the zone complied with the traffic control plan and the governing standards is exactly what discovery tests, and expect the defense to argue your speed and attention as comparative fault.
• Can I sue MDOT or the county? Only narrowly. Road agencies keep broad immunity; the highway exception reaches the road surface itself rather than signs and traffic devices, notice with specific contents is due within 120 days, and suit within two years, with state claims filed in the Court of Claims. The private contractors running the zone have no such immunity, which is why the contractor track is usually the stronger case. We evaluate both immediately, because the government track closes fastest.
• The company says work zone crashes are just a known risk of road work. Is that a defense? Not by itself. The known risk is why the standards exist: engineered tapers, spacing, buffers, and flagger protection are the required response to the danger, not an excuse for skipping it. Comp pays an injured worker regardless, and the third-party question is whether the companies controlling the zone did what the plans and standards required. Comparative fault gets argued in these cases, and the answer to it is the zone’s own paperwork.

Talk to a Michigan Work Zone Accident Lawyer Today

Whether you wore the vest or sat in the car, the zone was supposed to be engineered for your safety, and the evidence of what it actually was is temporary. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.