It can happen in a split second.
You take you eyes off the road to reposition your seat belt — or maybe you turn to say something to the person riding next to you. And the orange work-zone signs just don’t register in your mind.
In a heartbeat, your trip back from Seattle has taken a turn for the traumatic.
As quickly as accidents happen — someone gets hurt in a highway work-zone crash every 5.4 seconds in this country — their effects can be life-changing.
“It seems to be happening more and more frequently,” Kevin Nicholson, a Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance supervisor in the Cle Elum area, told the YH-R‘s Donald W. Meyers.
As WSDOT employees gathered at the South-Central regional office in Union Gap last Tuesday for National Work Zone Awareness Week, they remembered the 61 WSDOT workers who’ve died in roadside accidents since 1950. They set out an orange traffic barrel for each lost worker.
Work-zone crashes declined slightly from 2022 to 2023 — falling from 1,312 to 1,228. But fatalities rose from 6 to 10 during that same period.
The causes are predictable: Speeding, texting, not paying attention, driving under the influence of intoxicants. All completely preventable, yet the crashes continue.
This year, however, a new state law will allow traffic cameras in work zones. Starting in July, motorists who violate the rules of the road will get tickets in the mail.
State Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, one of the new law’s most ardent supporters, has long been an outspoken advocate for stricter enforcement of traffic rules.
“You gotta slow down,” he told the YH-R Editorial Board as the law was being drafted before the 2023 legislative session. “You gotta pay attention.”
That’ll be especially important this year. In addition to the ongoing work by local crews on North First Street and other county and city roadways around the Yakima Valley, WSDOT will set up work zones on Interstate 90 from Snoqualmie to the Vantage Bridge. State projects are also in the works on Highway 12, on two bridges along the Sunnyside-Mabton Road and near Wapato, where a culvert is being replaced under Interstate 82.
Warning signs will alert drivers at least a mile ahead of time, WSDOT’s Nicholson said.
We say it every year, but given the grim safety statistics, evidently it bears repeating: Slow down, pay attention, stay sober and follow the traffic rules — especially in work zones.
It truly is a matter of life and death.
