Around On Time Logistics, we are big on safety. Safety for our team members, our customers and their deliveries, and for the people we share the road with as we make our deliveries.
That’s why we wanted to dedicate this week’s blog to National Work Zone Awareness Week, which is April 26-30. NWZAW, sponsored by American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA), highlights the deadly dangers of inattention at highway work areas.
Founded in the late 1990s, NWZAW is a national effort that includes partnerships between state departments of transportation (DOT), national road safety organizations, government agencies, private companies like us, and individuals like you.
The goals for the week, according to the NWZAW website are:
- “Initiate efforts to raise awareness of the need for more caution when driving through work zones to decrease fatalities and injuries,
- Establish and promote a uniform set of safety tips,
- The value of training and importance of best practices in regard to work zone safety would be promoted among individuals in the private sector, industry, and roadway workers,
- Reach out to both roadway workers and contractors to communicate possible effects of motorists’ behavior in response to traffic delays, and advise on what steps might possibly be taken to lessen negative behavior; and
- Outreach efforts would be made to work with entities involved with work zone safety and to form partnerships.”
Also according to the website, “statistics from the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse show there were 762 fatal crashes in work zones resulting in 842 deaths in 2019. In addition, 135 roadway workers were killed in work zones in 2019. The vast majority of people killed were motorists, passengers and pedestrians.”
Work Zones are all over the place in Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock, and Tulsa. We encourage you to be mindful of the zones and obey all traffic laws. Getting somewhere fast is never as important as making sure everyone involved makes it to the end of the day alive.