This year’s National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW), beginning today, has the theme of “Work Zone Safety is in Your Hands.”
The annual Go Orange Day, when all roadway safety professionals across the country are encouraged to wear orange to show their support for work zone safety, is set for April 5. The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) wants those wearing orange to post photos on social media using the hashtag #Orange4Safety.
The NWZAW was created in 1999 as a means of highlighting hazards for both workers and motorists in road construction zones. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), a member of the NNWZAW executive committee, says an average of nearly 600 people are killed in road work zone sites each year, with roughly 30,000 being injured. About 120 of those killed each year are road construction workers.
The ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation has also created a National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse at workzonesafety.org. The site offers accident and crash data, flagging, emerging technologies and equipment, best practices, laws and regulations, safety standards, research publications and training videos.
Previous NWZAW themes included:
- 2016: “Don’t be THAT Driver: Work on Safety. Get Home Safely. Every Day.”
- 2015: “Expect the Unexpected.”
- 2014: “Work Zone Speeding: A costly Mistake.”
- 2013: “We’re All in this together.”
- 2012: “Don’t Barrel Through Work Zones! Drive Smart to Arrive Alive.”
- 2011: “Safer Driving. Safer Work Zones. For Everyone.”
- 2010: “Work Zones Need Your Undivided Attention.”
- 2009: “Drive to Survive – Our Future is Riding On It!”
- 2008: “Slow For the Cone Zone.”
The NWZAW executive committee consists of ARTBA, ATSSA, Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Associated General Contractors, Virginia Department of Transportation, Maryland Department of Transportation and Delaware Department of Transportation.
To see how individual states and organizations are promoting NWZAW, visit ATSSA’s page on the event here.
