National Work Zone Awareness Week
News 11 Melissa Zaremba tells us why National Work Zone Awareness Week is so important
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY-TV) - Nationally, work zone crashes occur almost every six minutes.
So the Yuma County Public Works Department wants to bring awareness when locals are driving through work zones.
“We would like to let the people be aware that there’s guys working, we come to work in the morning and we would like to go home to our families in the evenings,” said local Sign Tech Joe Escalante.
National Work Zone Awareness Week is an annual spring campaign launched at the start of the construction season.
“Especially this time of year is when a lot of the road work crews start doing a lot of the work because it’s springtime and springtime and through the beginning of summer is the best time of the year for us to do a lot of the road work and that’s what we’re doing out there and we’re just making the road travel worthy for the public,” said Escalante.
The top three causes of crashes and deaths in work zones are following another driver too closely, distracted driving and excessive speed.
So when locals see work zones, it’s a sign to slow down.
“We tell the public is plan your trip accordingly, you know give yourself time in the mornings cause you know a lot of us are always in a rush to where we need to get to and we don’t plan accordingly it’s good to plan out your travel time in the mornings because you never know what you will come across in the mornings you may come across us working on a work zone,” said Escalante.
Work zones can be one of the most dangerous places to drive by.
Due to changing traffic patterns, poor visibility, and other hazards or distractions.
That's why the Yuma County Public Works Department is offering training sessions this week for their employees.
“When you are setting a work zone up there are certain guidelines that you have to follow and as far as spacing in between signs, depending on the speed limit in the area and also when they put cones out and spacing of the taper for the cones so when your gonna move traffic from one lane to the open lane so there’s all kinds of stuff like that just to refresh the guys,” said Escalante.
Next time you see a sign, “road work ahead” make sure to slow down.
For National Work Zone Awareness Week, today is wear orange day to honor our local construction workers and those who lost their lives in a work zone.
