Caltrans honors fallen highway workers

Caltrans District 9 traditionally holds its Annual Workers Memorial in April, but due to COVID-19, this year’s event was cancelled. To remember the fallen workers who built and maintained the State’s transportation system, Caltrans District 9 has put together a video of highlights from its 2019 event.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, highway construction and maintenance work is one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States. In 2018, more than 7,000 work-zone collisions occurred on California roadways. About 2,300 resulted in injuries, and 46 involved a fatality. Nationally, drivers and passengers account for 85 percent of the people who are killed in work zones.

Drivers are reminded to keep highway workers safe by allowing enough space for workers by moving over a lane, when safe to do so, as they pass vehicles with flashing amber lights and by slowing down to “Be Work Zone Alert.”

Caltrans has partnered with the California Transportation Foundation to develop two funds to benefit the families of Caltrans workers killed on the job. The Fallen Workers Assistance and Memorial Fund helps with the initial needs a surviving family faces and the Caltrans Fallen Workers Memorial Scholarship is available to the children of these workers.

For more information or to make donations, visit http://www.www.transportationfoundation.org.

Visit YouTube at: http://www.youtu.be/18s2ZT6e9Wk to view Caltrans’ highlights of the 2019 Workers Memorial event honoring the 189 fallen workers, including the seven who died serving the communities of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.