ATSSA Signal May June 2019

The Signal | May/June 2019 5 ATSSA News Driving home the message of roadway safety National Work Zone Awareness Week 2019 spreads awareness of work zone safety 2019 was another successful year in National Work Zone Awareness Week’s (NWZAW) mission to save lives by spread- ing awareness of work zone safety. ATSSA, public agencies, organizations, and individuals hosted events and shared messages talking about work zone safe- ty throughout April 8–12, 2019. The Dis- trict Department of Transportation (DDOT) held the national kickoff event on April 9 in Washington, D.C., at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. The national kickoff event was emceed by ATSSA’s President and CEO Roger Wentz, and featured a lineup of speak- ers including Jeff Marootian, the direc- tor of DDOT, Brandye Hendrickson, the deputy administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, Commander Guillermo Rivera, who works in the Spe- cial Operations Division of the Metro- politan Police Department, and Lyndsay Sutton, a victim advocate and recipient of the American Traffic Safety Services Foundation’s Roadway Worker Memo- rial Scholarship. “All of us are here today as part of our commitment to work zone safety and moving Toward Zero Deaths on our roadways. For many of us that have lost a co-worker, a friend, or a loved one in a work zone—or know someone that has—National Work Zone Awareness Week is very personal… With 2017 fig- ures from the Fatality Analysis Report- ing System showing almost 800 work zone fatalities, these are reminders that we still have work to do,” said Wentz. Sutton shared the story of losing her father in a work zone crash in 2011, and how she’s dedicated her life to advocat- ing for work zone safety. “This is why we all gather together—the community, the public, [roadway safe- ty] organizations, departments of trans- portation—to come together to make sure our workers are safe, that our loved ones and friends are safe, and that ev- eryone working in and around work zones are safe,” Sutton said.