The Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association (WTBA) announced Tuesday the launch of “Work Zone Safe Wisconsin,” a website and guide geared toward student drivers.
The website, workzonesafe.com, will teach drivers about the latest laws, modern signage and challenges within Wisconsin work zones, officials said. It will also feature the men and women doing their jobs inside increasingly dangerous work zones, explained Steve Baas, executive director of WTBA.
“The orange cones and flashing lights may catch your attention momentarily, but it’s the people wearing vests and hard hats – working just feet from your vehicle as you pass by on the highway – whose personal stories can stick with you forever,” Baas said. According to Baas, an uptick of distracted drivers have made work zones more dangerous, and the website was one tool to reverse the trend.
In Wisconsin, nine people were killed and more than 700 were injured in work zone crashes in 2023, Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) data showed. Eight were killed in work zone crashes in 2022.
Among those killed was Zane Reilly, a 25-year-old utility worker who was struck and killed along a Sauk County roadway.
“It takes a village to keep our workers safe in the roadways,” said Reilly’s mother, Becki Slater. “We, as parents, need to model good driving habits, the education system needs to provide tools for young drivers to have in their toolbox to build awareness and understand the responsibility of being behind the wheel, and our judicial system needs to provide accountability when drivers are irresponsible.”
The site is focused on young drivers, but anyone can take the free course at any time on any device, officials said. The course takes 45 minutes to complete.
Students must watch 14 videos and read news articles throughout the WZSW platform to advance, officials said. There will be quizzes at the end of four sections that ask questions related to the people in those videos and stories. Those who finish the course are eligible for a $500 scholarship drawn monthly.
In 2022, Tom Robins, the founder of Work Zone Safe, launched the first Work Zone Safe website in Oklahoma.
“The mission of Work Zone Safe is for every new teen driver to know there is a face and family behind every flag, cone, and flashing light. As Wisconsin teen drivers take this free course, lives will be saved,” Robins said.
The website launch coincides with a state law requiring at least 30 minutes of work zone-related education in driver’s ed curricula, officials said. WisDOT has distributed information on the WZSW platform to all licensed driver’s schools as one option to meet the new requirements.
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Source: Dailyreporter.com
