Everybody who has worked a road job knows the feeling. You're on a shoulder on I-80, or a lane closure on Dodge, or a county highway resurfacing outside Fremont. Traffic is moving a few feet from your elbow. Somebody is on their phone. Somebody else decided the merge didn't apply to them. And the only thing standing between you and a vehicle is orange plastic and the hope that people are paying attention.
Most days they are. The days they aren't are the ones I get called about.
Work zone injuries don't look like the jobsite injuries I usually write about here — falls and equipment strikes come from the site itself. In a work zone, the hazard drives in from outside, at highway speed, and it's insured by somebody who has nothing to do with the project.
That changes the legal picture in a way a lot of injured road workers never find out about.
Two claims, not one
If you're hurt on the job, you generally have a workers' compensation claim. Comp pays defined benefits regardless of fault, and it typically bars you from suing your own employer. Fair enough — that's the trade.
But comp is not the only thing on the table when somebody else caused the injury. The driver who came through the taper is not your employer. Neither is their insurance company. A separate claim against that driver can reach things comp does not pay — full lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. For a worker who's facing surgeries and a permanent restriction, that gap is enormous.
I've written up how these two tracks fit together, including how repayment out of a third-party recovery works, on my page about a car crash that happens while you're working. If you're a road worker, read it before you accept anyone's version of what you're entitled to.
And the driver isn't always the only party worth looking at. Depending on the facts, questions can also reach the traffic control setup itself — how the closure was signed and tapered, whether devices were where the plan said, whether a flagger had an escape route, whether the crew was separated from live traffic the way the project called for. Those answers live in traffic control plans, project documents, and the contracts between the prime contractor and the subs, and they aren't in the police report.
The evidence that disappears first
A work zone is temporary by definition. Within hours of a crash, cones get reset, boards get rolled up, the closure moves down the road, and by next week the whole configuration is gone. So:
- Photograph the layout — signs, spacing, cones, barrels, boards, lighting — before anything is moved, if anyone on the crew safely can.
- Get the names of every worker who saw it and every company on site that day, not just your own.
- Report the injury immediately, in writing, even if you think you'll walk it off.
- Ask about video. Dashcams, a nearby business, a DOT camera, or a truck-mounted camera on your own equipment may have it — and none of those are kept forever.
- Don't give the driver's insurer a recorded statement before you've talked to a lawyer.
When it's the worst outcome
Some of these crashes kill people, and I'm sorry if that's why you're reading this. A family in that position is dealing with a comp death claim and a potential wrongful death claim at the same time, on different clocks, while an insurance company is already investigating. That is not a thing to sort out alone in the first week.
Why bring it to me
Interstate and highway cases are a big part of my practice — I keep a page specifically on I-80 crashes between Omaha and Lincoln because of how many of them come through my office. As an Omaha work injury lawyer, I don't stop when the comp claim is open. I go find the driver's coverage, the project documents, and every company that had a hand in how that work zone was set up. That approach has produced more than $23 million in recoveries for my clients, a $5.4 million top result, many five-star reviews, and a firm voted Best of Omaha for personal injury law in 2025 and 2026.
If you or someone in your crew was hit in a work zone in Nebraska or Iowa, call me at (402) 378-9208 or reach out here for a free consultation — the sooner the better, while the setup can still be documented. No fee unless I win your case.
Your Attorney
Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
More about Frank → · Free consultation: (402) 378-9208