It’s National Work Zone Awareness Week! From April 20-24, 2020, the annual spring campaign encourages safe driving through highway work zones.
This year is the campaign’s 20th anniversary of kicking off construction season with a safety-oriented message to the traveling public. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic has almost everything about daily life, National Work Zone Awareness Week faces new challenges.
As COVID-19 has resulted in emptier-than-normal streets, some drivers have begun to engage in reckless driving behavior.
“Despite there being far fewer vehicles on the road due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, state highway safety officials across the country are seeing a severe spike in speeding,” noted Jonathan Adkins, the Governors Highway Safety Association’s executive director, in a statement. “Many states have reported alarming speed increases, with some noting a significant surge in vehicles clocked at 100 mph or more.”
AsphaltPro encourages you to share the following reminder during National Work Zone Awareness Week 2020: Empty roads still have speed limits. Please watch out for workers!
Although in-person National Work Zone Awareness Week events have been cancelled as a result of Coronavirus, there are a number of ways to safely participate in the campaign.
The American Traffic Safety Services Association, which organizes National Work Zone Awareness Week, urges participation in the event in the following ways:
- April 20 (Monday): Train workers on ways to prevent work-zone struck-by incidents.
- April 22 (Wednesday): Wear orange to provide a visible reminder and to show your support for the families who have lost loved ones in work zone crashes.
- Throughout the week, take part in NWZAW this year by using social media to remind the public to drive carefully in and around work zones.
Let’s put an end to the tragedies and provide “Safe Work Zones for All.” If everyone pitches in, “We Can Do It!”
For more information, check out NWZAW’s website.