‘Work Zone Awareness Week’ highlights dangers to construction crews
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Leaders with the Florida Department of Transportation are highlighting dangers to road construction crews during “Work Zone Awareness Week.”
Construction project manager Austin Petersen says the national campaign’s goal is to educate drivers. According to the department, 293 people were killed and 277 were seriously injured during crashes in Florida work zones from 2020 to 2023. Data shows more than half of the crashes were rear-end collisions.
Petersen says crews take steps to stay safe while on the job.
“For worker safety in the work zone, our standard plans or our construction plans are designed to promote worker safety via maintenance of traffic devices. We have our personal protective equipment such as hard hats and some vests that are used to draw attention to workers as well as strobe lights on vehicles and social media campaigns and notifications to drivers of work zones,” he said.
During “Work Zone Awareness Week,” the department encourages simple steps among drivers to improve safety. “We’re looking for drivers to adhere to the speed limit in the work zone, we’re asking them to pay attention to work zone messaging and drive accordingly to keep some space between themselves and the other drivers and to pay attention to the speed limit and not drive distracted,” Petersen explained.
“Everybody wants to see their loved ones the next day. The Department of Transportation has actually, unfortunately, in the past year, lost a DOT employee in the District 2 area in a work zone fatality. So, it’s very important to FDOT and very near to our agency,” he added.
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