State and federal transportation officials gathered along Maryland’s newest highway, the InterCounty Connector, on Monday to kick off Work Zone Safety Awareness Month, which recognizes dangers faced by both workers and drivers traveling through work zones.
There have been an average of 2,646 work zone crashes per year in the past decade in Maryland, according to the Maryland State Highway Administration. In those accidents, more than 1,400 people have been injured and 12 killed. Nationally, the majority of those killed are motorists.
“Despite increases in traffic and highway construction and repair work in each state, roadway safety is increasing and work zone fatalities are falling,” said Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez. “Clearly progress is being made, but we need drivers to pay attention to road workers, and to each other, if we are to make highways even safer.”
Law enforcement officials in Maryland will be ramping up their enforcement efforts near work zones by continuing to use speed cameras near road construction projects with limits of 45 mph or more.
In the past 15 months, more than 450,000 citations have been issued via the speed cameras.
