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PennDOT Launches Campaign Aimed At Preventing Work Zone Crashes

Via: Justdrivepa.com

In the past five years, 128 people have lost their lives in work zone crashes, and PennDOT’s “#Slow4Zone” campaign hopes to put a face to road workers to prevent more lost lives.

The campaign starts during National Work Zone Awareness Week from March 23-27. During the week PennDOT will be posting stories on their Facebookand Twitter pages of workers who have been a victim of or seen work zone crashes.

“The campaign looks to emphasizes that each person is a mother, a youth mentor, or a family member who wants to get home safely each day. We really wanted to do that to sort of put more of a face on a lot of our employees,” said PennDot spokeswoman Ashley Schoch.  

Not only is it more dangerous to drive recklessly in work zones, but it also could result in higher fines. Drivers who do not turn on headlights in a work zone can be fined $25. Also anyone caught going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit automatically lose their license up to 15 days.

“Not only putting our workers in danger, but also putting themselves in danger, and breaking the law are things that just simply are not worth the risk. The ultimate goal is to keep decreasing the work zone crashes, so I think I can ultimately just say that we want to keep driving it down to zero,” said Schoch.

In the past five years there have been 10,586 crashes in work zones, and there have been seven crashes as of March 10th of this year.

PennDOT is joining forces with the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors and the American Traffic Safety Services Organization to help spread the word about driving safely this construction season.

Jess was accepted as a WESA fellow in the news department in January 2014. The Erie, PA native attends Duquesne University where she has a double major--broadcast journalism and political science. Following her anticipated graduation in May 2015, she plans to enter law school or begin a career in broadcast journalism.