Safety

PHOENIX – Three months after launching, the Arizona Department of Transportation’s Incident Response Unit has offered assistance nearly 4,000 times on Valley freeways, helping boost safety by getting traffic moving sooner after crashes.

In a first for ADOT, a new sponsorship by State Farm is helping the 14-member Incident Response Unit continue this important work, which ranges from setting up traffic control to moving vehicles involved in minor crashes to removing debris – even changing a flat tire here and there.

Have a great time if you go, but please leave prepared for extended time in frigid temperatures and never park on highway shoulders to play in the snow. 

PHOENIX – This week’s winter storms will have many desert dwellers heading to the high country to toss snowballs, make snow angels, sled, etc., etc. Have a great time if you’re among them, but leave prepared to spend extended time in frigid conditions and pack a fully charged cellphone and other safety essentials.  

This year is almost over — can you believe it?

As 2019 winds down, many of us have plenty of holiday parties, events and family gatherings to attend. All those end-of-the-year festivities can be fun, but let’s make sure we end this year safely.

Before you head out on the road, it’s worth taking some time to plan ahead. If you’re attending a holiday party, please make sure you have a safe ride home.

Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

PHOENIX – Arizona Department of Transportation snowplows will operate around the clock when winter storms hamper travel on state highways. For Interstate 40 between Flagstaff and Williams, the highest freeway stretch in Arizona, an innovation known as the TowPlow helps give ADOT an edge by allowing just one driver to clear snow and ice from two lanes.

The TowPlow is a steerable trailer with a 26-foot blade that attaches to the back of a snowplow. Two TowPlows are assigned to I-40 west of Flagstaff, an area that often sees intense snowfall.

PHOENIX – When blowing dust reduces visibility along 10 miles of Interstate 10 between Eloy and Picacho Peak, a detection and warning system developed by the Arizona Department of Transportation will quickly tell drivers to reduce speed for safety.

The Arizona Department of Transportation is completing a project to install hundreds of new, more visible wrong way signs along Phoenix-area freeways as part of ongoing efforts to get the attention of often-impaired drivers who go the wrong direction on off-ramps or in travel lanes.

The Arizona Department of Transportation has received a 2019 National Roadway Safety Award for the wrong-way vehicle alert system being tested on Interstate 17 in Phoenix.

This week is National Teen Driver Safety Week and it couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. In Arizona, more teen drivers are involved in vehicle crashes in October than any other month.

There are a variety of factors that contribute to October and other fall months seeing a spike in teen driver crashes, but this fact remains: Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teens in the United States.

ADOT has created new teams to better respond to the scene of highway crashes.

Those taking State Route 88 (Apache Trail) between Apache Junction and Tortilla Flat should use caution with some areas at the edge of the roadway coned off while the Arizona Department of Transportation addresses flood damage.

Those driving along State Route 347 between Interstate 10 and Riggs Road will see large white decals being tested on the pavement.

The speed limit is now displayed on the highway pavement in large white decals as part of an effort to improve safety along SR 347 between Interstate 10 and Riggs Road.

Keep an eye on the forecast and be ready to slow down with heavy rain possible early next week.

If you can relate to any of the following, Child Passenger Safety Week is for you:

PHOENIX – To enhance safety and manage traffic through the bridge improvement project along Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge, the Arizona Department of Transportation is using a first-of-its-kind alert system to help reduce emergency braking and collisions.

With I-15 reduced to one lane in each direction during construction, traffic begins to queue during peak travel times and holidays. A queue warning system that includes portable message boards informs drivers of stop-and-go traffic ahead using equipment that detects traffic in real-time. 

ADOT has honored three SRP employees who jumped in to help during a vehicle fire on I-10.

At ADOT, our No. 1 goal is for everyone to get home safely.

Of course, we cannot accomplish that goal alone. We need drivers to help by making better choices behind the wheel. There are too many preventable collisions, fatalities and injuries occurring on Arizona’s roads.

It's Shark Week, but on Arizona roads we have something else to be on the look out for.