Students to Make Safety Pledge for Work Zone Awareness

A group of young students at Volusia Pines Elementary School in Lake Helen will be the first students in Central Florida to take the safety pledge as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) staff members will visit the school on Tuesday, April 4, at 9 a.m., to offer a special program promoting safety around road construction.
The students will hear some safety tips from the FDOT Project Manager for the I-95 Major Interchange project and have an opportunity to draw what’s most important to them as a reminder that we all have something that drives us to arrive home safely. The students will receive a special Safety Pledge sticker and other items as part of the activity.
Media will have an opportunity to interview with students of Volusia Pines Elementary, FDOT Project Manager Brad Bauknecht, and FDOT Public Information Officer Jessica Ottaviano. The school is located at 500 East Kicklighter Road, Lake Helen, FL 32744. Please check in at the front office.
“With so much road construction going on throughout Central Florida, we want everyone to be aware of how important it is to be safe in those areas,” said Brad Bauknecht, FDOT I-95 Major Interchange Project Manager. “These students are future drivers and current passengers who can help remind us to slow down and pay attention so that everyone arrives home safely.”
The FDOT expects to offer the safety program in schools in Osceola and Brevard counties later in the school year.
The 2017 National Work Zone Awareness Week is April 3-7 and aims to remind all drivers that “Work Zone Safety is in Your Hands.” In Central Florida, FDOT is urging drivers to also consider what’s at stake by asking, ‘What Drives You?”
The National Safety Council reports in its 2017 edition of “Injury Facts” that there were 35,500 injuries from work zone crashes in 2015.
The FDOT urges all drivers to slow down, stay alert to changing conditions and warning signs, obey the posted speed limit, and keep a safe distance between vehicles. Drivers may participate in the safety campaign via social media by sharing what drives them to stay safe using the hashtag #WhatDrivesYou.