Texas Department of Public Safety begins its start of the annual construction season and encourages safe driving through highway construction sites and in honor of such, the City of Brownwood Proclaimed April 7-11 as Work Zone Awareness Week.
Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes presented TxDOT officials with a proclamation recognizing the agency and its employees and private contractors for doing their part to build and improve roads and bridges in the state.The proclamation states that road work is a hazardous occupation with 10-15% of work zone fatalities being workers and 85-90% of fatalities in work zone crashes being drivers and passengers. Since 1938, TxDOT has lost 273 employees to a third-party vehicle crash on or near a roadway. The most recent death occurred this past weekend in Bexar County.
TxDOT officials have set up displays of a poster with the names of employees who have lost their lives in work zones along with a hard hat resting on a safety cone. These displays have been placed locally at Texas Bank, 3M, Early City Hall and Brown County Law Enforcement Center to honor those who have lost their lives and to remind the public just how important it is to drive carefully and slow down in work zones.
Pictured above is Mayor Haynes making the proclamation with TxDOT Brownwood’s District Engineer Elias Rmelli, Traffic Safety Specialist Jeanni Luckey, Director of Operations Carl Johnson, Director of Construction Eric Lykins, Bart Fris and Jerry Johnson at Tuesday morning’s council meeting.
Pictured above are Rmelli and Luckey with Brownwood Chief of Police Mike Corley and Early Chief of Police David Mercer beside the display at the Brown County Law Enforcement Center.
Pictured above, 3M employees Sarah Horton, Howard Preston, Chad Massey, Robert Tarpley, and Fred Kelly support Work Zone Awareness Week, standing by TxDOT display at the 3M plant in Brownwood.
Pictured above TexasBank employees Tim Espinoza, Vice President of Lending, Bonnie Belvin, Assistant VP New Accounts, and Brian Nelson, Compliance Officer also show support of TxDOT’s Work Zone Awareness Week.
