MoDOT is asking motorists to Work With Us this Work Zone Awareness Week
The Missouri Department of Transportation has a special message for all the motorists in the area this summer — work with us.
That was the theme of the 2025 Work Zone Awareness Week kickoff event on Monday outside the MoDOT Joplin Regional Office.
There were 23 people who lost their lives in work zone crashes last year. Of those, four were because of distracted driving, which itself caused 350 accidents across Missouri last year.
While Missouri State Troopers are there to enforce the laws, it’s up to local drivers to make sure they’re not distracted while behind the wheel.
“We have a special project going on today in the construction zone that’s at the six mile marker on I44,” Missouri State Trooper Corporal Sam Carpenter said. “We have two dedicated troopers whose only duties are to work in that construction zone today. We do that quite frequently when MoDOT sets up these long-term projects. And even though that’s inside the city limits of the job line, it’s still the interstate system, we’re obviously able to work through that area. So, that helps to where we can just dedicate officers time to only looking for violations in those work zones
“MoDOT does a really good job of setting up early warning signage. This one at the six-mile marker even has a speed trailer set up that checks your speed as you’re coming into it. So there’s no excuse for you not knowing how fast you’re going or how to get through it. We’re there as a presence and we try to make it to where people go through those zones and keep those workers as safe as possible.”
There is going to be an uptick in road work this summer, a historic amount in the state of Missouri, and it’s up to each individual driver to make sure the roadways are safe by slowing down, staying focused and making safety a priority.
“I mean I would say almost 100 percent (of the responsibility to keep work zones safe) lies with individuals,” Carpenter said. “It’s just taking individual responsibility for your actions behind the wheel. You’re in control of a 2 to 3 ton chunk of steel moving at 70 miles an hour. That’s a dangerous vessel. We just need you to pay attention.
“Your job going from A to B is to do it as safely as possible. And everybody around you relies on you.”