ADOT urges motorists to stay alert during Work Zone Awareness Week
ADOT urges motorists to stay alert during Work Zone Awareness Week
Safe actions save lives
PHOENIX – Highway projects are a necessary part of maintaining Arizona’s highway system and improving safety. To complete these improvements, Arizona Department of Transportation maintenance crews frequently work alongside fast-moving cars and trucks.
During National Work Zone Awareness Week, ADOT is urging motorists to stay alert and slow down when navigating work zones. The theme of Work Zone Awareness Week, April 20-24, is “Safe actions save lives.”
Crashes don’t just happen. They’re the result of choices made behind the wheel and everyone can make better decisions, so everyone gets safely home.
“Safety is ADOT’s number one priority and our crews work diligently to improve state highways and make travel safer for the public,” ADOT Director Jennifer Toth said. “To do that, we need drivers to help keep our workers and themselves safe in work zones by staying alert, obeying the speed limit, and following traffic cones and barriers so we all can arrive at our destinations.”
Speed limit signs, traffic cones and barriers, lane restrictions and orange signs are all elements of a work zone designed to keep both the workers and traveling public safe. Drivers can make themselves safer by following instructions and minimizing distractions because, according to the Federal Highway Administration, about 80% of work zone fatalities nationwide were drivers and their passengers.
When drivers pay more attention they’re making themselves and work zone crews safer, too.
Crash reports show that since 2021 at least 80 people have been killed in work zone-related crashes along all roads in Arizona, including local streets and state highways. Arizona work zone crash statistics over the past five years include the following:
- 2021: 13 fatalities, 26 serious injuries
- 2022: 11 fatalities, 29 serious injuries
- 2023: 17 fatalities, 29 serious injuries
- 2024: 23 fatalities, 34 serious injuries
- 2025*: 16 fatalities, 36 serious injuries (*preliminary: data for 2025 is subject to change)
Drivers should avoid tailgating as speeding is one of the major causes of work zone crashes and rear-end collisions are the most common types of crashes in work zones.
Visit azdot.gov/work-zone for more information.