I-40 Crash Kills 2 Workers, Highway Construction Deaths Up 55 Percent

By Stan Miller, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is investigating why a woman lost control of her SUV in an Interstate 40 construction zone, killing two workers. The two men killed were related and another relative witnessed the whole thing.

Without a full investigation it's hard to know if the crash was avoidable, but all it takes is drivers giving their full time and attention to driving. With all the distractions behind the wheel today, that's easier said than done.

Oklahoma unfortunately has as many or more highway construction projects underway than most states and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is trying to juggle traffic flow with worker safety.

Since ODOT was created, it has lost more highway workers than the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has lost troopers. ODOT knows that drivers see construction zones as a nuisance, and they say that's fine, as long as they see them.

"Were the workers close to traffic? Absolutely. Are they always close to traffic? Definitely. That is what they do," said Terri Angier, Chief of Public Affairs for ODOT.

Angier did not want to speculate on what caused the driver to run off the road, but she said with one of the busiest travel weekends of the year coming up, she's hoping this tragedy will wake drivers up to the fact that they need to pay attention when they see the orange cones.

She said ODOT doesn't want to narrow all construction zones to one lane, but it will need cooperation to keep the lanes open.

"And that's why we ask the drivers to be partners with us so we can allow that. We don't want to narrow I-40 to one lane in each direction when there's 40,000 cars driving that stretch each day," said Angier.

Angier said for the July 4 weekend, you can bump that number to 60,000.

ODOT said we can learn from this tragedy and three things will keep it from being repeated. Stop tail-gating, speeding and pay attention in work zones.

"I don't know what happened, but when you see those cones you need to drop your phone and pay attention," said Bobby Stem, the Association of General Contractors.

An OHP trooper was assigned to park at this work zone, but was not scheduled to be there until 7 p.m. when lanes were being closed down.

Last year, 17 people were killed in Oklahoma highway work zones; a 55 percent increase from the year before and 767 workers were injured in work zone collisions.

More: 2 Construction Workers Hit, Killed By Car on I-40 Near Yukon