SGI launches July spotlight: Slow down in orange zones

The summertime means construction season is well underway and SGI is reminding drivers to help keep workers safe.

SGI announced highway construction safety as the focus of July’s Traffic Safety Spotlight at a construction zone along the Trans-Canada Highway east of Balgonie on Wednesday morning.

Drivers are reminded to obey the signage and slow to 60 kilometres per hour or the speed that is posted when passing through construction zones, regardless of whether they see a worker present.

“You’re going to see a lot of highway construction this summer. The whole province is really under construction. It’s just really important to slow down and obey those reduced speed limits,” said SGI’s Tyler McMurchy.

Under the Highway Traffic Act, drivers are required to slow to 60 km/h when passing through an orange zone. The penalties for not obeying the reduced speed limits are significant.

Driving 80 km/h in a 60 km/h zone results in a $440 ticket. That jumps to a $1,008 ticket when speeding at 100 km/h through a 60 km/h zone.

McMurchy said construction zones are workplaces, and those workers deserve respect and courtesy from drivers.

“Could you just imagine when you’re back at your desk, if you have somebody blowing past your desk at 100 km/h, how intimidating and scary that could be,” said McMurchy.

Shantel Lipp, president of the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association, said near-misses are a constant problem, one that she believes is getting worse in construction zones across the province.

Workers often report having to dive out of the way of drivers who cross over the line or veer outside the pylons when they’re not supposed to.

When talking about the dangers workers frequently face, Lipp pointed to a crash that resulted in a near miss along the Trans-Canada west of Maple Creek last week. She said a camper being pulled by a pickup truck was hit by a semi.

“(The pickup was) driving through the zone at the posted limit and the semi driver was speeding, and actually hit the back of that camper doing well in excess of 110 (km/h) in that 60-kilometre zone,” said Lipp.

SGI’s preliminary data from 2018 shows there were 190 collisions in highway and municipal work zones that caused 68 injuries and one fatality.

When asked what more could be done to improve safety, Lipp said she’d like to see concrete barricades erected to protect workers from traffic.