MoDOT, AAA host Work Zone Awareness Week event

Livestreamed news conference included guest speakers and testimonials

"Last year, we had 63 of our TMA protective trucks hit - the most ever we've had in any given year."

Ed Hassinger

MoDOT Chief Engineer

This week is National Work Zone Awareness Week. On Tuesday, April 16, MoDOT hosted a news conference in partnership with AAA Missouri’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month event at the Capitol building in Jefferson City.

The event included speeches from MoDOT Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger, Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Dusty Hoffman and others, urging drivers to "Work with Us" when they encounter work zones by buckling up, setting their phones down and slowing down. These seemingly simple actions are small ways everyone can make a difference in keeping each other safe in work zones.

There was also a strong focus on the recently passed Siddens-Bening Hands-Free Law, including speeches from the law's namesakes, Adrienne Siddens and Stephanie Bening, who each shared the stories of their losses which led them to sponsor the bill-turned-law.

Brian Rickmann, an intermediate maintenance worker out of MoDOT's St. Louis district, was also in attendance to share the human side of work zone safety as someone who drives those protective vehicles and has been hit three times.

The full news conference is posted on MoDOT’s Facebook page.

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