LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association, also known as MITA, wants drivers to know about a campaign they’re promoting.
“The campaign is not a new campaign,” said MITA Executive Vice President Rob Coppersmith. “Its been done throughout the years, and it’s about trying to raise drivers’ awareness as they come into work zones, and getting people to slow down and pay attention to the workers.”
During the campaign, MITA will be placing ads on billboards all over Michigan asking drivers to slow down in work zones.
“We’ve targeted the entire state and will be placing billboards in places we call high probability accident zones,” Coppersmith said. “So Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit.”
Coppersmith hopes the billboards will help drivers think about their safety and the safety of others on the road.
Last year, Michigan State Police reported over 5,800 work zone crashes, with 19 of those crashes being fatal.
“We need to do everything we can to try and curb those numbers,” Coppersmith said.
Aside from the billboard campaign, in the future, MITA hopes to collaborate with Michigan State Police to install cameras in certain work zone areas across the state.
“We think that would be something that would aid the state police because everybody gets spread thin, and we can’t be at all places at all times, but we’ve seen in other states that they have a dramatic reduction in crashes in fatalities with these cameras,” Coppersmith said.
Legislation is being worked on to get the cameras, so it’s unclear when they’ll be installed. Billboard signs for the campaign are being installed now.
