As construction season gets underway across Pennsylvania, crews are back out on the roads and facing serious risks from passing traffic during National Work Zone Awareness Week.

During a press conference on Thursday, students were honored for their PennDOT Innovations Challenge, focused this year on work zone safety.

The data shows nearly 1,400 work zone crashes and 12 deaths occurred in 2025.

“Those crashes took the lives of 12 people, 12 people too many. We want that number to be zero moving forward,” Larry Shifflet, PennDOT Executive Deputy Secretary, said.

One worker involved in a work zone crash was Franklin County Maintenance Manager Robert Bingaman.

In 2007, while setting up a work zone along Interstate 81, he heard something go by.

“There was a loud crash, and I felt the truck rock. There was a tractor-trailer that sideswiped the truck [and] took my mirror off,” Bingaman said.

The driver later admitted he never saw the crew. That moment still sticks with Bingaman almost 20 years later, shaping how he approaches every day on the job.

“It woke me up as to every morning I leave for work, I may not come home. When I leave for work today, it’s always like telling the loved ones ‘bye,’ because you never know if you’re going to see them again,” Bingaman said.

Officials said distracted driving remains a major problem even when proper signage, cones and trucks are in place.

“It’s not just the cell phones. People are going down the road putting makeup on, reading newspapers, fiddling with their radios or whatever. I could go on and on and on about the things that we see passing us,” he said.

Officials at the presser explained that even when work zones are set up correctly, workers are still at risk.

“We can do everything right or everything by the book, everything by the spec, but we can’t fix careless driving. We can’t fix stupid,” Mark Compton, CEO of the PA Turnpike, said.

That’s why the message to drivers is simple, but critical: drivers play the biggest role in keeping workers, and themselves, safe.

“When you’re going through work zones, as soon as you see the orange signs, be aware of what you’re going to go through, and, you don’t know what you’re going to approach. Slow down in the work zones, be cautious and always obey all the direction that’s given,” Bingaman said.