(Photo by Brett Dunlap) Kevin Lewis of the Ohio Laborers Employers Cooperation Education Trust hands a hat to Ashley Zella as her family that includes sons Jackson and Camden and husband Casey look over an informational table set up at the Ohio Welcome Center near Marietta along Interstate 77 highlighting the need for drivers to pay attention as highway crews are out doing work this summer. The Zellas, who are from Charlotte, N.C., were traveling through the area Thursday.

Ohio highway officials worked Thursday to remind the driving public to be mindful of road crews out working this summer and drive safely through work zones.

The Ohio Department of Transportation District 10 held an event Thursday at the Ohio Welcome Station outside Marietta along Interstate 77 to remind the traveling public about road crews who are out during the summer doing road work and the need to keep them safe.

“We are trying to raise awareness for work zone safety,” said ODOT District 10 Deputy Director Rich Oster. “We are seeing a dramatic rise in those incidents and we are trying to raise awareness with the traveling public to make them aware of our Move Over/Slow Down law and asking when they see crews out working to move over and give them space to work safely.”

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were 4,000 work zone crashes in Ohio in 2024 and 35% of these crashes occurred with workers present, according to a press release from ODOT. There were 22 people killed statewide in 21 deadly work zone crashes as well as another 123 were seriously injured in 97 work zone crashes, the press release added.

ODOT is partnering with Ohio LECET (Laborers Employers Cooperation Education Trust) to raise awareness of work zone safety and the Move Over Law, said Ashley Rittenhouse, Public Information Officer for ODOT District 10.

(Photo by Brett Dunlap) A display was set up at the Ohio Welcome Center along Interstate 77 outside of Marietta Thursday highlighting the 22 highway workers in Ohio who were killed in 2024 in work zone accidents. During that year, there were around 4,000 work zone crashes in Ohio.

As part of the event, ODOT set up 22 traffic cones with t-shirts draped over them to represent the 22 lives lost on Ohio highways in work zone crashes in 2024.

“We have our ODOT employees out there working,” Rittenhouse said. “This time of year, we also have a lot of contractors (represented by LECET) out there working as well.”

There have already been 73 ODOT crews struck so far this year compared to 84 struck statewide all of last year, Rittenhouse said.

“It is July and we have a ways to go before the year is over,” she said. “Unfortunately, it is becoming too common of a thing.

“When we tell people the numbers they are really shocked by it.”

Problems that have led to accidents have included people speeding through the work zones, people on their phones while driving through the work zones, people putting on makeup while driving through the work zones and more, Rittenhouse said.

“Our employees have to have their heads on a swivel, because they see so many things out there,” she said. “It is important to follow the driving laws any time you are behind the wheel, but especially in those work zones.

“There are people out there working who just want to go home at the end of the day.”

Highway Technician Roger Damron said being out working along area highways can be very dangerous with traffic and how close they are to traffic.

“It is every time that we are on the road that we have a close call,” he said. “It is everything from parts coming off vehicles to people texting and driving.

“It has been motorists not paying attention rather than paying attention to the work zone.”

He recalled crews doing repairs along I-77 once where they had a board with the arrow telling people to move over into another lane that was hit and totaled as well as another instance where a semi drove through freshly laid concrete near where workers were working.

“We have a lot of close calls,” Damron said.

People working along the highways want drivers to pay attention and be careful.

“Put your cell phones down and drive safely,” Damron said. “Just know that we are normal people and we have families to go home to just like everyone else and we would like to do that at the end of the day.

“We just want everyone to just be careful.”

Highway workers are not the only fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 742 drivers and their passengers died in work zone-related crashes in 2022 – the latest year available.

Ohio State Troopers wrote 8,396 citations for speeding in work zones with 29% for speeds more than 20 miles per hour above the posted speed limit, the ODOT press release said.

The law requires motorists to move over a lane if anyone is along the side of the road working, whether it is road crews, a tow truck operator or law enforcement having pulled someone over, Rittenhouse said the law requires motorists to move over in the other lane and if they can’t do then then they need to slow down.

“It is the law, not a suggestion,” she said.

Oster said they usually have 80-100 road projects annually.

“This is one of our bigger years,” he said of the widening of US 33 in Athens and Meigs County which is resulting in $350 million being spent in District 10 which includes Athens, Washington, Meigs, Monroe, Noble, Morgan, Gallia, Venton and Hocking counties.

District 10 has around 330 permanent employees of which 200 are highway technicians which could be out on the roadways at any given time. There are also numerous contractors who bid these jobs who are out there as well so they could have as many as 400 people out working at any time, Oster said.

People are distracted by a number of things from looking at their phones to eating and more.

“Those distractions are where the accidents happen,” Oster said. “We are asking people to keep the roadways safe since we are working to make the roads safe.”