Work crews with the Ohio Department of Transportation work along Ohio 555 near Bartlett, Ohio Tuesday. This is National Work Zone Awareness Week and drivers are being reminded to be mindful of crews doing work along area roadways. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

BARTLETT – As the weather gets warmer and road crews are out doing work, motorists are being reminded to watch out and slow down for work on local roadways, as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week.

Ryan Billingsley, Highway Technician 3 with the Ohio Department of Transportation, was part of a crew working along Ohio 555 near Bartlett Tuesday.

He talked about the continual need for people to slow down when going through an area where highway workers are doing their job.

“People slowing down is important to me because every one of us has a family at home and we all want to make it home at the end of the day,” Billingsley said. “We are around dangerous things all day working with equipment and trucks.”

A lot of attention is taken up with the job at hand, but workers are also mindful of traffic going through the work zone.

A traffic signal put out by road crews doing work Tuesday along Ohio 555 to better control traffic in highway work zones. This is National Work Zone Awareness Week and people are being asked to remember the safety of highway workers as they drive through work zones. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“We pay attention to the traffic, but they need to pay attention to us as well so we can get home safe,” Billingsley said.

Crews have signs and traffic lights up to get people to slow down.

“If someone blows through a light, a flagger has a radio and they will let us know,” Billingsley said. “We hurry up and stop everything so we don’t run into them and they don’t run into us.”

If someone is injured on the job site, work stops for the rest of the day, he said.

“If someone would be struck by a vehicle or a piece of equipment our day is over,” Billingsley said. “We are done for the day.

“We just wasted a day. That is eight hours we could be working on a road or fixing a number of problems.”

Billingsley said he has been on crews doing patching work along four-lane highways and they have had many motorists not get over while crews were in the roadway. Ohio’s Move Over Law requires drivers to move over and slow down for any stationary vehicle with flashing lights on the side of the road. The law applies to vehicles with flashing lights of any color, including law enforcement officers, emergency responders, road construction, maintenance vehicles, utility crews and tow trucks.

“We have had a lot of close calls,” he said. “We have the ‘Slow Down, Move Over’ effect in place all the time.

“A lot of people just don’t pay attention to that. When we are out there working and people are going by at 70 mph, it is scary to be standing along the highway with people coming at you.”

” … many people are not paying attention or they don’t care,” Billingsley said.

“I would ask people to treat us like we were their family,” he said. “They would love to see their family come home everyday and be there. … We just ask for people to slow down and move over when needed. Above all, pay attention.”

Billingsley said crews have seen a lot of people going through work zones on their cell phones texting and distracted.

“We see that often and more than we should,” he said. “We shouldn’t be seeing it at all.

“We have a lot of drivers coming through our work zones texting and we can see it plain as day. That is why they are blowing through our traffic lights, because they are not paying attention to what is ahead of them.”

Today, is Go Orange Day where the public is asked to wear orange in support of work zone safety nationwide, said Ashley Rittenhouse, public information officer for ODOT District 10.

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were 4,435 work zone crashes in Ohio last year, and 34% of these crashes occurred with workers present.

“Sadly, 21 people were killed in 17 deadly work zone crashes,” the statement said. “Another 96 work zone crashes resulted in serious injuries.

“Speeding and following too closely continue to be the top factors in work zone crashes. Troopers wrote 7,019 citations for speeding in work zones with 36% for speeds more than 20 miles per hour above the posted speed limit.”

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com