Personnel with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the Work Zone Safe program and its safety partners walk students through a mock work zone to educate them about the hazards they may face on highways when driving.
Work Zone Safe
Oklahoma has become the first state to require a work zone safety course for new teen drivers.
The law takes effect November 1, requiring the free course offered by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for those 16 and older who are applying for an intermediate driver’s license, according to the legislation that was passed and signed this year.
The new requirement follows concerns about an increase in work zone crashes, as motorists continue to ignore speed limits and use cellphones while driving through work zones, endangering workers, themselves and other drivers. It also covers the state’s Move Over law, designed to protect roadside workers and first responders, by requiring drivers to change to outside lanes to give them more room.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said the country faces a “national crisis of fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways.”
Despite that, “particularly when it relates to work zones, we have done nothing in the United States to address how we educate and engage particularly our young drivers,” said Tom Robins, founder of workzonesafe.com, during a recent webinar by the Associated General Contractors of America.
“And here's another cold hard fact. We have flooded our roadways with ‘...
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