Video Targets Young Drivers in Work Zones

To reduce the number of work zone accidents, the Carolinas Association of General Contractors (AGC) is developing an educational video on work zone driving safety to be distributed to driver’s education schools across North and South Carolina. The video features a teenage girl named “Jenny” driving along U.S. 29 east of UNC-Charlotte in her father’s black Ford Expedition (which was actually a company car of Rea Construction.) As the stereo blares, she puts her makeup on in the rearview mirror and alternately talks on the cell phone. Suddenly she encounters a work zone. While bent down to turn down the stereo, she swerves into the orange barrels and hits a construction worker. The worker (who is an actual employee of Rea Construction) is thrown back in slow motion and hits the ground with blood seeping from his head. Soon after a state trooper arrives (who is actually an NC DOT employee), he tries to comfort Jenny’s hysterical sobs, then cuffs her and puts her into the back of his patrol car.