Keeping Work Zones Safe: A New Approach to try and Cut Down on Distracted Drivers.

The campaign’s message is eyes up, phone down, buckle up, and slow down. Construction workers hope the new requirement will give student drivers more empathy for workers along the roadside.

A nonprofit group teamed up with the mother of a Wisconsin road construction worker who was killed in a work zone crash to launch a new course that aims to ensure people understand work zone safety.

The Wisconsin Transportation and Builders Association announced that the free, web-based instructional guide and test will target Wisconsin student drivers. It’s called “Work Zone Safe Wisconsin,” and while it specifically focuses on young drivers, anyone can take the free course.

Hoffman Construction was happy to participate in the WTBA’s launch of Work Zone Safe Wisconsin (WZSW), a free online platform that teaches teens (and all drivers) the latest laws and rules to follow when driving through a work zone.

In addition to reading up on rules, regulations, and signage, students must watch 14 videos about real-life people in Wisconsin impacted by work zone crashes before taking quizzes that ask specific questions about those people.

Work Zone Safe Wisconsin lets them get acquainted with the faces and names behind the stories so that this becomes not a theoretical exercise for our drivers but something very personal. Its launch comes the week after WisDOT released 2023’s work zone crash statistics: nine deaths, more than 700 injuries, and more than 2,100 accidents.

There was an emotional heaviness during the press conference for the launch in Osseo.

Becki Slater made sure everyone there walked away knowing a little bit about her son, Zane Reilly. “I knew my son was a good person. I knew he was an empathetic person and a good friend to all,” Slater said, speaking in the past tense.

Reilly was working along a Sauk County highway in 2022 when a driver fell asleep, smashed through Zane’s work site, and hit and killed him. He was just 25.

“It wasn’t just a loss for our family but for many people. No families, communities, or companies should go through this,” Slater said. Hoping to prevent at least one family from experiencing what she did, Slater sees Work Zone Safe Wisconsin as essential in teaching drivers about the real people behind the barrels. Work Zone Safe Wisconsin lets them get acquainted with the faces and names behind the stories so that this becomes not a theoretical exercise for our drivers but something more personal.

Jim Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Construction Company, plans to hear some of those personal stories. He saluted the WZSW program during Wednesday’s news conference in Osseo, telling the crowd he would take the course, too.

Hoffman Construction has a worksite nearby on I-94. “Certain things are in your control, certain things you can do: you can put your phone down, you can respect the speed,” Hoffman said. “When you’re a construction worker, certain things are out of your control. What’s out of your control is what happens on the other side of those barrels.”

All students who take and pass this course are automatically entered into a monthly drawing to win a $500 Scholarship.

Additional Photos of WTBA Press Conference held at Hoffman Construction’s Osseo job: