MoDOT has posted an update. See below.
This week marks work zone awareness week. The Missouri Department of Transportation wants you to know work zone safety does not just protect the workers, but drivers as well.
According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, nineteen MoDOT workers have been killed in the line of duty since 2000. Thirteen of those deaths occurred in work zones.
Steve Campbell, the District Engineer for MoDOT’s Southwest District, said, “That’s 13 preventable instances where our employees could have come home at the end of the night, but didn’t.”
Four-thousand people have been injured in work zone crashes in the last five years.
“We’re just appealing to people to make good choices when they’re out in our work zones,” Campbell said.
With their Work Zone Awareness Week campaign, they are spreading a message of safety through social media.
One of the biggest problems with work zone safety is distracted driving.
“Distracted driving isn’t just your phone, it’s going down the road eating, dropping something, and bending over to pick it up. People reading the newspaper. You know crazy stuff,” Campbell said.
When driving, keep your eyes on the road at all times. If you’re driving in a work zone, slow down to the posted speed.
“Even If you’re going 20 or 25 miles per hour, you can still really hurt one of us,” Colby Rozell, the Safety Director for the Greene County Highway Department, said.
Follow the directions of the signs posted ahead of the work zones.
“We always try to set up our signs, to give a lot of pre-warning,” Rozell said.
Follow those signs so you know when to merge, taking the proper steps when zipper merging.
“The people that are in the lane that is open need to allow an appropriate space between them and the people in front of them, to allow the car beside them to move in. it’s very much a zipper function,” Cambell said.
For instructions on how to zipper merge, click here.
You can also click here to find a list of Hit A Worker Laws & Penalties.
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