‘Slow down, move over.’ Connecticut launches new safety push for highway workers

With just days until the busy Thanksgiving travel weekend, Connecticut is launching a renewed effort to keep highway workers and first responders safe.

Crash Responder Safety Week comes amid yet another deadly year on state roads.

DANGEROUS DUTY

Carlton Jack is thankful to be alive.

Jack drives a “crash unit truck” for the Connecticut Department of Transportation – but several years ago, the crash came to him when a driver tried to cut off a big rig truck in a work zone.

“He was trying to speed and tried to squeeze in front the tractor-trailer, which the tractor-trailer guy did not want to let him in,” Jack said. “He got caught between my truck and the tractor-trailer.”

Jack wasn’t hurt because he was inside his truck. But not everyone is so lucky. In June, DOT maintenance worker Andrew DiDomenico was picking up litter along Interstate 91 when a suspected drunk driver struck and killed him.

Just weeks earlier, Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier was killed by another suspected drunk driver. Pelletier was conducting a traffic stop on Interstate 84 in his hometown of Southington.

"The distance to stop with a newer passenger car from 65 mph on a dry, level highway with perception reaction time of one-and-a-half seconds is 308 feet," said Connecticut State Police Sgt. Luke Davis.

And it's not just highway workers and first responders. Tow truck drivers feel the risk, too.

"We're losing a driver every six days in the towing industry," said Dave Fultz, with Nelcon Towing and Recovery.

“SLOW DOWN, MOVE OVER”

This year is on track to be one the state’s deadliest. So far, 297 people have lost their lives on Connecticut roads. That’s already 11% higher than all of last year – and not far from 2022’s record of 366 fatalities.

That's why Connecticut is launching another safety push before the holiday season. Crash Responder Safety Week comes just before AAA expects 71 million drivers to hit the road for Thanksgiving holiday.

Police will be watching.

“Slow down, move over, be aware of your surroundings, drive sober and ditch the distractions,” Davis said.

DOT is also running new ads reminding drivers that highway workers are people too – people who want to come home alive. “Got to go home,” Jack said. “I got to go home to my kids, my wife.”