PennDOT stresses safe driving in busy summer work season
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The work zone on Route 309 in South Tamaqua.
SOUTH TAMAQUA – PennDOT and the State Police are urging motorists to practice safe driving during a busy road work season this summer.
“We’re seeing a lot of aggressive driving patterns,” Christopher Kufro, PennDOT District 5 Acting District Executive, told the media at a work zone along Route 309 in West Penn Township Wednesday morning. “We’re seeing a lot of people doing aggressive moves, ignoring our signs, travelling very fast, going around cones.”
“We really want to bring that awareness and attention to avoid any incident,” Kufro added. “It’s very dangerous out here [at a work zone] and we have our folks out here working. If anybody were to come crashing through, you could have fatalities, serious injuries.”
Kufro emphasized the need for drivers to “slow down, take your time, and obey the laws.”
“Leaving space between each other, and giving reaction time, slow everything down,” Kufro said. “That’s our key message.”
“Slow down, be aware, and just pay attention,” Kufro added.
Such driving habits, he said, should be observed all the time, not just in work zones.
PennDOT and its contractors have been busy in the county this year, with a patching project ongoing on Route 309 between Route 443 at Leiby’s and Tamaqua borough, oil and chip projects in Barry, Butler, Eldred, and Cass Townships, among others, and the ongoing Route 924 Reconstruction Project in Shenandoah, undertaken by contractor H&K Group.
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Master Trooper David Beohm, Troop L Public Information Officer, said that failure to abide by traffic laws in a work zone could carry a criminal violation from a summary up to a felony “if you don’t pay attention, if you don’t see the signs three miles in advance that tell you to slow down.”
“Slow down, pay attention, think about what you’re doing behind the wheel, not what you’re going to be doing when you get home after driving through the zone,” Beohm said. “You could change lives, not only your life, but also the guys and gals that work on the highway — they have families, they go home to families every night and they want to go home every night.”
Beohm said that part of a state trooper’s job is to keep the highways safe.
“If we can stop somebody, write a couple tickets, whatever it may be, maybe word gets out that ‘We don’t want to mess around in this [construction zone] because you’re going to get one from the state police,'” Beohm said.
Beohm added that one of the key problems is that drivers aren’t adhering to speed limits or the move over law.
“We want to make you all safe out there,” Beohm said.
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