SPOKANE COUNTY, April 6, 2018 – As we head into our busy spring and summer road construction season, we’re asking Spokane County motorists to be patient with travel delays and/or detours, and PLEASE SLOW DOWN when driving through a road construction zone! The employees in those work zones are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters – and they all deserve to go home at the end of their shift. Far too many of our workers have had close calls…even injuries in a work zone because a driver wasn’t paying attention, ignored the signs, or was driving too fast.

We provide our workers with equipment and training, but we also need YOUR HELP to keep everyone on the road safe. It can be a matter of life and death.
 
We ask all drivers in work zones to:

• SLOW DOWN – drive the posted speeds, they’re there for your safety
• BE KIND – our workers are helping to keep you safe while improving roads
• PAY ATTENTION – to the workers directing you and the surrounding traffic
• STAY CALM – expect delays, leave early or take an alternate route if possible (use the Spokane Regional Road Construction Map at https://srtc.org/constructionmap to see where construction is underway); no meeting or appointment is worth risking someone’s life!

Washington State averages 837 roadway work zone injuries a year.  According to the Washington State Department of Transportation in 2017, we had:

• 1,703 reported collisions either in a work zone or in a related back-up
• 708 reported injuries
• 7 fatal crashes