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While I don't know the author personally, the message strikes home for me. This is the business I am in. Please keep this letter in mind as you head out on the road this construction season.
Last week is National Work Zone Safety Week. I am now a widow and our three young children are fatherless because a semi truck driver crashed into a work zone. For me, and our children, this nightmare will never be over. We will never have our wonderful husband and Daddy who was so sweet, so loving and giving, so understanding and thoughtful. John filled our world with happiness, adventures, and love. And now it is all gone. Nothing will ever fill the void in our lives. Don't let this happen to someone else.
I don't know what exactly lead to that truck crashing into the turnpike's work zone, but I do know that people need to change their attitudes. The guys working on the roads are no different than you. They have friends, family, future plans, bills to pay, kids to raise.
No one likes it if the road is closed completely, so they do the best they can to keep traffic moving, try to stay safe while still maintaining and repairing the roads so you have a good ride. They deserve your undivided attention, respect and courtesy such as slowing down and not being annoyed that they are interrupting your drive for a few minutes.
DOT's Director Jerry Wray said "It takes an additional 2 minutes to drive through a two-mile stretch of highway where the speed is reduced to 45 mph from 65 mph." Two minutes! To quote my deceased husband, "Getting there 3 minutes earlier isn't going to make that big of a difference." But it just might save a life and a family from devestation... and if you are the one who hurts or kills someone, you are probably going to jail-- you may lose your driver's license and you will have to live with the guilt of knowing you have destroyed that person's life, his wife and kids' lives-- and your own life too.
There is no reason why work zones should not have the same caution granted to a school bus with its lights on. Pay attention. Slow down. Be prepared for the unexpected. Everything can wait until you are safely out of that work zone.
Amy Fletcher
Perrysburg
