The North Carolina Department of Transportation is reminding drivers to use caution in construction zones. It’s part of their Work Zone Safety Week, reports News14..
“You’re supposed to slow down, well he jumped right over on me and had I not thrown on my brakes he would have wiped me out,” said driver Sheila Joy. She stopped at a Cabarrus County gas station after a close call with a truck driver on Interstate 85 southbound.
“You have barrels and cones and sometimes trucks coming in and out of travel lanes and lane shifts,” said Jen Thompson, spokesperson for the NCDOT. It’s why they’re urging drivers to be more aware driving through construction zones.
According to the NCDOT there were 600 traffic related deaths in construction zones nationwide in 2010. The most common factor in those accidents was speed. “Generally in those work zones we have speed limits reduced,” said Thompson. She said there haven’t been any serious accidents in the stretch of the I-85 widening project where the speed limit is 55 mph.
But a work zone accident on U.S. 258 South in Kinston killed 60-year-old truck driver Ronald Easley early Wednesday when he crashed into another trailer stopped on the road. “We have a lot of folks working in the median and we just want folks to slow down for their safety and the safety of the workers,” said Thompson.
The I-85 widening project in Cabarrus County is expected to be complete in November 2013. Read More.