This article originally appeared in WSBT 22. Read more here.
As road construction increases with warmer weather, officials in Michigan say something else is also likely to increase — the number of accidents involving workers on the roads.
To keep everyone safe, the Michigan Department of Transportation is using this week to give everyone on the road tips for safe driving.
Officials say being a swampy peninsula makes road maintenance a challenge for the state.
Road departments plan to add to an already extensive list of projects with recent flooding in some areas.
As the weather warms up, the number of workers in busy traffic is already increasing.
MDOT says drivers must do their part to keep themselves and crews safe on the road.
MDOT Communications’ John Richard said, “I mean, there’s workers present there. They’re in the wide open a lot of times. It’s a very dangerous job. Motorists need to slow down. So we wanna make people aware just how critical this is because, and I always say this, I probably say it in my sleep, but the number one safety feature in any vehicle is always the driver.”
The Work Zone Awareness Week is an attempt to drive down the number of vehicle accidents that happen in Michigan each year.
Officials say the state averages around 1,000 deaths by vehicle crashes each year.
Last year, 25 of those crashes happened in a work zone where road repairs were ongoing.
Officials say things like tailgating, speeding, and distracted driving have a direct impact on those numbers.
Around 30,000 deaths are caused by vehicles nationwide each year.
Transportation officials want to remind drivers of the limited protection for crews often only separated from traffic with cones and plastic barricades.
“So that concrete barrier wall offers a lot of protection, but even if that takes a solid hit from a big truck, that’s going to move. So that’s why speed is such a huge factor when it comes to every crash, regardless if it’s a work zone or not,” said Richard.
Preliminary statistics from the department show around 6,000 work zone crashes last year, a similar number to 2024.