Collision Avoidance and Connected Analytics: Transforming Safety in Construction
As construction projects grow more complex, safety is using AI-backed collision avoidance and connected data to reduce blind-spot incidents and push safety culture beyond compliance.
- By Jackson Phillips
- Feb 27, 2026
The construction job site is a highly active environment: multiple skilled trades, mobile equipment, changing layouts, and variable lighting conditions. Traditional safeguards such as spotters, PPE, and backup alarms remain essential. But a purely reactive approach leaves behind avoidable gaps in safety, especially around vehicle-to-person interactions. The gap is present and identified in national health and safety discourse: NIOSH has repeatedly highlighted struck-by-risks and industry efforts to elevate awareness and improve controls for operators in the construction sector (1).
This is a pivotal moment within the industry to make the move beyond checklists to create a standard of connected safety, an operating model where continuous sensing, actionable analytics, and frontline leadership work together to enable earlier intervention and create a proactively safe environment.
Pairing Human Judgment with Assisted Alerts
Construction leaders rightly emphasize that technology must enhance, not replace, an operator's judgment. Intelligent alert systems, using escalating audible and visual cues, help operators respond promptly, whether by braking or pausing activity, to address the identified risk.
However, automated interventions such as speed limiting must be applied with care to avoid unintended consequences, like load instability or abrupt stops. This human-centered approach aligns with OSHA’s broader emphasis on building safety culture through training, engagement, and transparent communication. These elements not only enhance compliance but also contribute to workforce retention and a positive industry reputation (2).
Why Collision Avoidance Belongs in the Safety Stack
A persistent challenge in construction is the dynamic nature of crews and subcontractors, making it impractical to always rely solely on personal wearable safety devices. Instead, camera-based detection offers a realistic solution that “sees” people and obstacles in real time and can be configured to alert only when a person intrudes into a defined risk zone (reducing nuisance alarms). Without requiring on-site crew members to be constrained by physical devices, operators can maintain situational awareness and respond to genuine hazards more effectively.
Designed for harsh, rugged jobsite conditions, emerging systems can resist dust, rain, and temperature swings and mount to equipment, with zone coverage tailored to the machine’s blind spots.
For safety leaders, the real advantage is contextual intelligence. By distinguishing humans from nonhuman objects, collision avoidance technology dramatically reduces false alerts and keeps operators focused on genuine proximity risks. This aligns with warnings about alert fatigue and distractions, critical factors in preventing struck-by incidents (1).
Lighting, Layout and Line of Sight
Visibility is a critical factor in mitigating struck-by risks on construction sites. Poor lighting not only increases the likelihood of accidents but also undermines productivity and overall site safety. Upgrading to engineered, industrial-grade LED lighting solutions can significantly enhance line of sight, reduce operational errors, and minimize maintenance demands.
When lighting improvements are paired with advanced detection systems, both machine vision and human awareness are elevated, working together to create a safer, more responsive work environment. Thoughtful integration of lighting, layout planning, and collision-avoidance systems empowers crews to identify hazards sooner and navigate complex jobsite conditions with greater confidence, supporting a proactive safety approach.
Connected Analytics: From Reactive to Proactive
The true power of camera-based detection lies in its ability to generate actionable, context-rich data. By aggregating near-miss events, zone breaches, and annotated images on secure dashboards, safety teams can uncover patterns across shifts, tasks, and locations. This data-driven approach transforms safety management from a cycle of audits and reports into a dynamic learning system. One that informs site layout and operator behavior adjustments, traffic control strategies, and work sequencing in real time to help minimize incident risks.
Industry research and public health guidance urge safety leaders toward this proactive model. By examining trends and root causes, such as vehicle movement, pedestrian pathways, and visibility constraints, teams can continuously refine controls and interventions. For today's safety managers and executives, making informed decisions means understanding the risks, cases, and available alternatives before taking action. Resources such as the CDC’s construction safety library provide valuable evidence and insights to support these decisions, helping organizations move beyond compliance to create safer, smarter jobsites (2).
Here are some practical steps construction leaders can take:
- Map people-to-plant interactions: use recent work plans to identify where equipment and pedestrians overlap to overlay camera coverage and lighting improvements in those zones (2)
- Standardize alert logic: implement escalation tiers (ranging from caution to critical) to be consistent across machines, so operators interpret signals uniformly.
- Make analytics routine: review event statistics weekly with supervisors; convert patterns into layout changes, alternate shifts, or added barriers (3).
- Tie improvements to site rules and training: when you adjust controls (lanes, signage, lighting), update the traffic plan and micro training modules. Ensuring clarity reduces reliance on informal “workarounds” that increase risk. For governance, keep penalties and enforcement visible, so standards are taken seriously (4).
- Align procurement with analytics: favor equipment and safety systems that support configurable detection zones, robust ingress protection, and straightforward operator interfaces. Be aware of new and emerging technologies that are available to enhance safety and productivity with actionable insights.
Culture Is the Accelerator
Technology brings visibility; culture makes it durable. The most resilient safety programs go beyond compliance by actively engaging frontline workers, encouraging open dialogue, “good catch” reporting, and recognizing proactive behaviors. When crews see that their observations lead to real changes, such as rerouted traffic, improved lighting, or refined alert zones, participation increases and incidents decline.
But true safety leadership means making culture the foundation for every innovation. It’s about building trust, empowering teams to speak up, and ensuring that every voice is heard and acted upon. When safety becomes a shared value rather than a checklist, organizations unlock the full potential of their technology investments and create environments where people look out for one another.
In today’s complex construction landscape, the firms that thrive will be those who pair advanced solutions with a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous learning. By making safety a collective priority, leaders not only help protect their teams, but they also set a new standard for excellence across the industry.
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This article originally appeared in the February/March 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.