Maryland’s governor renewed focus on work zone safety after a horrific crash on the Baltimore Beltway killed six workers last month.
On any given day there are more than 300 work zones and more than 1,000 workers on the highways in Maryland with little more than concrete barriers protecting them.
The driver of a Lexus was speeding and clipped another car during a lane change March 22, investigators said. The Lexus continued through a gap in the jersey barriers meant to allow construction vehicles into and out of the protected safety zone. The Lexus traveled a mile through that zone and struck the workers before flipping over.
Between 2011 and 2017 there were more than 7,500 work zone crashes, with 46 fatalities, including seven highway workers. There were eleven work zone deaths last year.
Gov. Wes Moore ordered the formation of a work zone safety work group.
“The ability to be able to lean into this, the ability to be able to say that we have to take and we will take in this administration an aggressive posture towards it was something that was in place from the earliest days of the administration,” he said. “The tragedy, obviously, on the 22nd was a thing that I think really helped to fortify the decision to make this happen,” he said.
The work zone safety work group will include police, state highway officials and highway workers, and it will be headed up by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, who has a background as a transportation engineer. The group will make recommendations on enhancing safety based on best practices, cutting-edge technology and other factors.
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“And consider strengthening our laws on speeding and distracted driving near work zones,” Miller said.
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