Illinois Takes Work Zone Safety to Heart – with Help of Workers’ Kids

Illinois drivers are getting an important message these days from an authority they can trust – kids. Illinois Department of Transportation officials, watching death tolls rise in state work zones, determined that a previously successful public-information campaign promoting work zone safety had gone stale, with drivers no longer paying sufficient attention to the messages. After consultation with a coalition including state police and groups representing workers and contractors, IDOT decided to get to the heart of the matter with signs at the entrances to work zones in a childlike script that read: “Please slow down – my daddy (or mommy) works here.” They are signed with a child’s name. Enforcement is also a major part of the picture – with state police taking a zero-tolerance approach to work zone violations. And Illinois DOT has a way to focus those drivers who can’t be talked into safer work- zone driving even by a charming youngster. IDOT is posting variable-message signs at the entrance to some work zones advising incoming motorists how many drivers have been ticketed in that zone for violations in recent weeks.