Conferences/Special Events Calendar
Conferences/Special Events Calendar
The third annual National Work Zone Awareness Week will be held during the week of April 8 through 12, 2002. The theme for this year's campaign will be "Roadways Keep America Moving, Drive Safely in Work Zones."
A kick-off media event will be held on Tuesday, April 9, at 11 a.m. at a work zone located at the I-95/I-495 interchange at Ritchie Marlboro Road in Prince George's County, Md. The event will feature the unveiling of a memorial wall in honor of those who lost their lives in work zones.
The focus of the national work zone safety campaign is to increase driver awareness in work zones, thereby improving safety for both motorists and highway workers. Despite the efforts by transportation officials to create safe and mobile work zones, there are multiple injuries and fatalities across the country. An alarming trend of increasing work zone-related automobile crashes has been documented in recent years. In 2000, the number of fatalities in work zones was 1,093.
Work Zone Facts
- Over the last five years, the number of persons killed in motor vehicle crashes in work zones has gone from 717 in 1996 to a high of 1,093 in 2000 (for an average of 829 fatalities per year).
- On average, from 1996 to 2000, 16 percent of the fatalities resulting from crashes in work zones were non-motorists (pedestrians and bicyclists)
- More than 40,000 people per year are injured as a result of motor vehicle crashes in work zones.
- An estimated 5,000 people were injured in crashes involving large trucks in work zones in 2000.
- In 2000, more than half of all fatal work zone crashes occurred during the day, while about two-thirds of fatal work zone crashes involving large trucks occurred during the day.
- In 2000, nearly two times as many fatal work zone crashes occurred on weekdays as on weekends.
- In 2000, fatal work zone crashes, regardless of whether or not a large truck was involved, occurred more often in the summer and the fall.
- In 2000, the percentage of crashes with a fatality in work zones on urban interstate highways was nearly twice the percentage of all fatal crashes on urban interstate highways (11 percent compared to 6 percent).
- In 2000, the percentage of fatal crashes involving large trucks in work zones on urban interstate highways was nearly twice as high as the percentage of all fatal truck crashes (15 percent compared to 9 percent).
- In 2000, the majority of fatal work zone crashes for all vehicles and large trucks occurred on roads with speed limits of 55 miles per hour (88 kilometers per hour) or greater (60 percent and 70 percent, respectively).
Visit http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov for details.