{"id":174334,"date":"2026-04-23T23:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174334\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:07:13","slug":"work-zone-crashes-in-pennsylvania-highlight-dangers-for-road-crews-amid-driver-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174334\/","title":{"rendered":"Work zone crashes in Pennsylvania highlight dangers for road crews amid driver distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During a press conference on Thursday, students were honored for their PennDOT Innovations Challenge, focused this year on work zone safety.<\/p>\n

The data shows nearly 1,400 work zone crashes and 12 deaths occurred in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose crashes took the lives of 12 people, 12 people too many. We want that number to be zero moving forward,\u201d Larry Shifflet, PennDOT Executive Deputy Secretary, said.<\/p>\n

One worker involved in a work zone crash was Franklin County Maintenance Manager Robert Bingaman.<\/p>\n

In 2007, while setting up a work zone along Interstate 81, he heard something go by.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a loud crash, and I felt the truck rock. There was a tractor-trailer that sideswiped the truck [and] took my mirror off,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt woke me up as to every morning I leave for work, I may not come home. When I leave for work today, it\u2019s always like telling the loved ones ‘bye,’ because you never know if you’re going to see them again,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/p>\n

Officials said distracted driving remains a major problem even when proper signage, cones and trucks are in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Officials at the presser explained that even when work zones are set up correctly, workers are still at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do everything right or everything by the book, everything by the spec, but we can\u2019t fix careless driving. We can\u2019t fix stupid,\u201d Mark Compton, CEO of the PA Turnpike, said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the message to drivers is simple, but critical: drivers play the biggest role in keeping workers, and themselves, safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As construction season gets underway across Pennsylvania, crews are back out on the roads and facing serious risks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[78191,78190,78192,28,30,29,78193],"class_list":{"0":"post-174334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-larry-shifflet","9":"tag-maintenance-manager-robert-bingaman","10":"tag-moving-forward","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","13":"tag-pennsylvania-news","14":"tag-work-zone-crashes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}