DeWine said now is the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day known as the 100 deadliest days of summer when there are more people out on the roads.
“These 100 deadliest days of summer also coincide with the peak of road construction season,” the governor said. “This is a time of the year when teams from our Ohio Department of Transportation as well as contracting crews are out there … repairing our roads, building our roads and trying to make our highways safer for everyone. Yet ironically as they are trying to make it safer for everyone, they are in danger.”
Since 2019, there have been nearly 26,000 work zone crashes that injured 9,000 people, many seriously. During the same period, 99 people have been killed in work zone crashes, including nine road workers.
“All I can ask of you is that you please slow down, pay attention, put your phone down, and realize that these accidents happen in a split second,” said Dana King, whose 21-year-old son, Alex, was killed in June 2021 while working in a construction zone in Butler County. “One small distraction can cause a lifetime of devastation. You never think it can happen to you until it happens to you.”
The enhanced enforcement means more troopers, including motorcycle units, monitoring work zones on the ground and increased use of the patrol’s aviation unit to spot dangerous drivers from the air. Troopers will target crash-causing violations, such as speeding, driving impaired, driving distracted, and otherwise driving recklessly in work zones.
DeWine said the initiative is to educate the public, and to discourage unsafe driving, particularly in work zones.
“The only way we were going to get the deterrent effect is for real tickets to be handed out,” he said. “It’s trying to get people to understand that we have lives at stake in construction zones.”
There are more than 500 active road construction zones in Ohio, with another approximately 950 road projects planned before summer’s end. OSHP and ODOT are coordinating to ensure that each work zone experiences increased enforcement, with a focus on long-term work zone sites where crashes and reckless driving are frequent.
A construction zone on I-75 in Montgomery County is one of 10 work zones that will have additional signs to alert motorists, DeWine said.
Also, ODOT is piloting work zone rumble strips on I-75 in Dayton and I-70 in Zanesville to make them more alert as they enter the work zone, said ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks, who pointed out a rollover crash just Wednesday morning in a construction zone on I-75 just south of Dayton.
As part of the road safety initiative, ODOT is putting increased focus on educating the public about the importance of moving over. A law enforcement officer, firefighter, road worker and tow truck driver are featured in the new “Not Just a Roadside Worker” campaign, which emphasizes that those working alongside the road are also husbands, wives, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends and neighbors.
Ohio’s Move Over Law requires drivers to shift over one lane, or to slow down if changing lanes is not possible, when passing any vehicle with flashing lights on the side of the road.
“Whether they are in a work zone or responding to an incident, roadside workers need your help to keep them safe. Please move over and slow down, but above all pay attention,” Marchbanks said.
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