CLAYTON — Next week is National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week, and the Ohio Department of Transportation wants to remind drivers to pay attention and to slow down behind the wheel.
There was 4,628 work zone related crashes last year in Ohio, 21 of which were deadly. According to ODOT, more than 25 of their road crews have already been struck in 2023.
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“A lot of times when you’re entering a work zone, you’re going to have traffic shifts. Things are not in their normal configuration. You may have drivers in front of you slowing down quickly. So it’s really important that you’re putting down those distractions and you’re paying attention behind the wheel.,” Mandy Dillon, Southwest Regional Public Information Officer for ODOT, said.
ODOT wants to ensure that everyone, drivers and road crews, get home to their families safely.
“For our employees, that roadside work zone is their office for the day. So we want to make sure that they make it home safe,’ Dillon said.
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Too many close calls and crews have been hit while working throughout the state.
“I’ve been with ODOT for about five years, and I can’t tell you how many close calls I’ve had, not knowing if I was going to get the chance to go home, been that scared on the road,” Ben Norrad, Highway Technician for ODOT said.
Dillion and Norrad want to remind drivers of Ohio’s Move Over, Slow Down law. Anytime a driver sees flashing lights on the side of the road, they need to move over one lane if it is safe or slow down if the driver cannot shift lanes.
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“Nobody follows it. There’s very few people that follow it. And it’s it’s pretty scary when you are you sitting on the side of the highway in a pickup truck and you’re out, out doing your job outside of a vehicle and you’re getting passed by cars doing 60, 70, 80 mile an hour, not by feet, by literally inches. There is there’s no comfortability working,” Norrad said.
Norrad, a husband and father of five, has a lot to live for and wants to make it home every day after work to them.
“Give us space. You guys want to go home to your job, we want to go home. We don’t have space to do our job, nobody’s going to. It’s not good for anyone. You want potholes fixed, you want dips in the road fix, we can’t do that without space. Give us space to work - We understand it’s an inconvenience. I 100 percent understand it is an inconvenience. There’s nothing worse than being stuck in traffic, but if we don’t give the time and the space to do that, it’s only going to get worse,” Norrad said.
Dillon and Norrad say ODOT crews are getting injured mainly because of distracted drivers and they would like to see drivers do their part to ensure everyone gets home safe.