National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) begins today with a straightforward theme: Drive Safe. Work Safe. Save Lives.

Statistics are sobering. In 2019, 842 people were killed in 762 fatal crashes in work zones, including 135 roadway workers, according to the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse. That means most of the people killed were motorists, passengers and pedestrians.

Today is Work Zone Safety Training Day, in which employers and workers are encouraged to pause voluntarily during the workday for safety demonstrations, training in hazard recognition and fall prevention, and talks about hazards, protective methods and the company’s safety policies, goals and expectations.

ATSSA President & CEO Stacy Tetschner today sent a letter to the heads of state Departments of Transportation requesting assistance in light of the current shortage of base resin.

Two major manufacturers of base resin are currently unable to provide the substance used in High Friction Surface Treatment applications due to circumstances beyond their control, Tetschner explains in the letter. He notes that the issue is related to February’s extreme weather events in the Midwest and Texas.

“With US-based materials supply limited, increased costs over the last several months, and a significant delay in shipping overseas materials to the United States, it is likely that some already agreed upon supply contract deadlines will be impacted,” Tetschner states in today’s letter to DOT secretaries across the country.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (Feb. 18, 2021) – Two exhibitors at ATSSA’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo received Innovation Awards today in recognition of new products  that contribute to the industry’s mission of advancing roadway safety and working Toward Zero Deaths.

The new products from 2020 were evaluated by a panel of judges made up of Department of Transportation personnel. Judges reviewed nine items from companies across the country as part of the New Products Rollout.

ATSSA’s 51^st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo was held online and ran over two weeks, from Feb. 8 through today.

Training and technology were identified as two important areas to address during this morning’s Roadway Worker Protection Summit, the kick-off event of ATSSA’s 51^st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.

“Training is absolutely critical,” said Kathi Holst, a four-decade member of the industry, an ATSSA board member and president & CEO of RCMS in Naperville, Ill. “If we aren’t providing training … we are negligent.”

Holst was one of four panelists for the Summit, which addressed both prevention of work zone incidents and resources for use if the worst happens and an employee gets killed on the job. ATSSA Vice President of Education & Technical Services Donna Clark and ATSS Foundation Chair Dave Krahulec moderated the discussion, which also included Doug Dolinar, who is president of Guidemark Inc. of Souderton, Pa., and also an ATSSA board member.

The first time Kathi Holst lost an employee in a work zone incident was decades ago but she vividly remembers the heartache and overwhelming desire to closet herself off from the world. Instead, she had to keep going and deal with the myriad issues that arise from such a tragedy.

Doug Dolinar is still reeling from the death of an employee just six months ago.

Those experiences motivated Holst, president & CEO of RCMS in Naperville, Ill., and Dolinar, president of Guidemark Inc. of Souderton, Pa., to take part in ATSSA’s Roadway Worker Protection Summit scheduled for Feb. 8 as the kickoff event for the Association’s 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.