For Work Zone Awareness week, NAPA launches “WatchForUs” campaign against distracted driving

Updated Apr 11, 2018
The accident scene where a Pennsylvania road construction worker was hit by an SUV in 2015.The accident scene where a Pennsylvania road construction worker was hit by an SUV in 2015.

 

With more than 80,000 crashes each year in roadway work zones, the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) is kicking off WatchForUs, a new distracted driving campaign for National Work Zone Awareness Week, April 9‒13.

Every year, between 500 to 1,000 people are killed in work-zone accidents, Federal Highway Administration statistics show.

“With WatchForUs, NAPA is reminding drivers of the need to resist distractions and to pay attention while driving through work zones,” says 2018 NAPA Chairman Craig Parker, executive vice president of Silver Star Construction Co. in Moore, Oklahoma.

“We do everything possible to ensure a safe jobsite, but when traffic is just inches away from workers, it takes just a moment’s lapse of attention for a tragedy to occur.”

Companies are investing a great deal of time, effort, and training to control potential risks within the work zone, often positioned right next to traffic lanes, a NAPA press release notes. The association pegs the death toll at more than 600 people each year.

The WatchForUs campaign spotlights a short film, “A Moment Can Save a Life,” which dramatizes the lifelong effects a work zone accident can have on a family. The film, embedded below, is supported by the WatchFor.Us website, which includes video testimonials from road builders about real-life consequences of distracted drivers and work zone accidents.

The latest AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety Culture Index survey found that about 84 percent of drivers report regularly seeing other drivers using a cellphone for texting while driving. The same survey found that distracted driving is the greatest hazard on the road today, according to a NAPA press release.

NAPA encourages its members and everyone in the road construction industry to join in calling on the public to slow down, pay attention, and WatchForUs when driving near work zones.