Chris Runyan
OCA President
In a nod to greater safety through highway construction work zones and driving on Ohio’s highways in general, the legislature and DeWine Administration passed legislation earlier this year that strives to curb the frequency of distracted driving. The recognition of the dangers of distracted driving in work zones was enhanced by doubling the penalties when a violation occurs in a construction work zone.
While this is an important piece to the puzzle for keeping this industry’s workforce safe when they are frequently exposed and vulnerable to fast-moving vehicles, it leaves a key piece of the safety puzzle left unaddressed. That piece is the one that reads – SPEED KILLS.
In its white paper entitled “Policy Statement and Guidance on Automated Speed Enforcement (Speed Safety Cameras) in Roadway Work Zones,” the America Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), citing state data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, states that speeding has been involved in approximately one-third of all highway fatalities.
We can read the grim statistics for Ohio from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s (OSHP) Work Zone Dashboard. So far in CY 2023, there have been 2,131 crashes in Ohio’s work zones; 36% of those crashes have occurred when workers were present. Five crashes have resulted in six deaths. With our thanks, 2,327 work zone citations have been issued by the OSHP in its heightened enforcement activities within work zones. Reflecting the trends for greater speed, 38% of those citations were written for speeding that was 20 mph or more over the speed limit.
Just as distracted driving has been an important piece of the work zone safety puzzle even before full enforcement of the law was in place, there is another tool available to further direct the driving culture toward reducing speeds within work zones. That tool is the adoption of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE), also referred to as speed safety cameras (SSC). Just as the distracted driving law has already been shown to reduce poor driver behavior, implementing ASE’s SSCs in work zones has proven to be a successful strategy in reducing speed, aggressive driving, fatalities and injuries.
While it’s a moving target because of the ever-increasing number of adopters, the website trafficprobeds.com, in its May 4, 2023 blog, listed 15 states already with legislation allowing SSC’s deployment – with additional states rapidly moving toward adoption. ARTBA recently reported 24 states with automated enforcement laws approved or underway. Ohio will soon be an island surrounded by implementing states, as Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have SSC programs in place and Kentucky is well down the road within their legislative process in also granting the use of cameras in work zones. It is time that this discussion begins in Ohio.
Make no mistake – this is a debate that has shown, in many cases, to take years to win the acceptance of legislators, administrations, law enforcement and the courts. However, this must not deter efforts of a strong coalition of impacted government agencies, organizations and unions to begin the effort. The price that is paid for not pursuing the safest possible working conditions for highway construction workers and maintenance men and women is far too great.