TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — The Utah Department of Transportation is asking every driver to be extra aware of work crews who are out there improving the roads as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week.
Even with a winter-type storm arriving this week, it's the beginning of UDOTs spring and summer road improvement project season.
They will be tackling about 175 projects over the next several months. So officials are once again reminding people to slow down in work zones, because the lives of employees are at stake.
“We just want to make sure that our workers are safe," said UDOTs John Gleason. "You can imagine it’s a frightening experience when you’re working next to traffic that’s going 70, 80 mph, and so we’re asking everybody to use caution and remember that these are people that want to get home to their families and we want everyone to get home safely.”
Carlos Braceras, the Executive Director of UDOT, tweeted out his pleato drivers Monday, along with a link to a public service announcement focused on keeping work crews safe. And if simply doing the right thing isn’t motivation enough, Utah Highway Patrol troopers are often in or around these work zones looking for speeders, impaired and distracted drivers.
Penalties for any of those violations in a work zone are subject to increased fines. Like the PSA says; “Be alert our parents are at work.”
