To encourage drivers to slow down and pay attention in roadway work zones, next week the National Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA) is kicking off WatchForUs, a new distracted driving campaign for National Work Zone Awareness Week, April 9‒13.
Building and maintaining roads can be a dangerous business. Companies invest a great deal of time, effort, and training, to control potential risks within the work zone, which often is positioned next to active traffic lanes. It just takes a momentary distraction for a car or truck to cross into a work zone, causing an accident. Every year, more than 600 people are killed in this sort of work zone accident.
WatchForUs is built around a short film, “A Moment Can Save a Life,” that dramatizes the lifelong effects a work zone accident can have on a family. The film is supported by the www.WatchFor.Us website, which includes video testimonials from road builders about real-life consequences of distracted drivers and work zone accidents.
“With WatchForUs, NAPA is reminding drivers of the need to resist distractions and to pay attention while driving through work zones,” said 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.”
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.
NAPA encourages its members, partners, 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.
