“Traffic” is a word usually associated with an inconvenience for you. A delay, a closure, a frustration. It raises our blood pressure daily, for months, YEARS even. There’s little we can do about it, and it’s frustrating that it’s out of our control. Maybe this is why we speed through these areas when we can; it’s perhaps why we check out and check our phones, thinking that going 25 miles per hour, 35, 45, where we would usually go 60 or 70, is “Safe”?
Speed, distraction, and apathy are some of the biggest reasons why work zones are the most dangerous places to work, with tens of thousands of injuries and deaths occurring each year, and the numbers are rising.
These truths are why this National Work Zone Awareness Week is so important. These truths are why Traffic Pro Beds, the American Transportation Safety Services Association, road construction workers, flaggers, traffic managers, engineers, crane operators, first responders, and countless others who find themselves in these zones every day need you to slow down, move over, and respect the orange.
In fact, as part of NWZAW, this Wednesday, April 13th, let’s all go #Orange4Safety to support our neighbors who go to work every day, and importantly support them in coming home too. Wear orange and share your support for road crews using the hashtag #Orange4Safety. Then put your awareness into action with small but simple steps of slowing down, keeping a level head, and putting the phone down.
For a complete list of National Workzone Safety Week Events, visit NWZAW.org.
Most work zone accidents are avoidable, which means the death and injury surrounding them are avoidable. We can genuinely make a difference together, not in 5 years, not in 10, but TODAY.
