ARTBA Scholarship Recipient Recalls Family Tragedy During National Work Zone Awareness Week Event
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Brad Sant
April 9, 2009 Lisa McCluskey
202-289-4434
(Washington, D.C.) —"I no longer have a father’s assistance and wisdom to guide me as I transition to young adulthood," lamented Rachel Moser, whose father Rick, a 21-year veteran of the Maryland State Highway Administration, was struck and killed while clearing debris from a highway overpass on Interstate 270 in June 2007. She asked: "Who will help me move into my first apartment? Who will celebrate all my independence as only a father can?"
Rachel and her mother, Laurie, were the featured speakers at the "National Work Zone Awareness Week" launch, held near a work zone along the Potomac River, overlooking the Washington Monument. Both women highlighted the safety risks of working in and driving through road construction zones and shared their personal stories about the toll of losing a loved one. Nearly 900 people and 100 workers are killed each year in work zone accidents.
Rachel, a student at Denison University in Ohio, is a two-time recipient of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association Foundation’s "Highway Worker Memorial Scholarship." Established in 1999, the scholarship provides post-high school financial assistance to the children of highway workers who are killed or permanently disabled on the job. More than 60 scholarships have been awarded to worthy students around the country over the past decade.
Also representing ARTBA at the event was Bud Wright, former executive director of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and chairman of the association’s Traffic Safety Advisory Council. "Every work zone crash is preventable and we can do better to reduce the number of deaths and injuries. It will require a combination of technologies such as engineering controls, crash attenuators, and positive protection for workers. It will require education and access to information such as that found at the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse. It will require stronger enforcement. It will require us working together," he said.
April 6-10 marks the 10th annual National Work Zone Awareness Week. The campaign is conducted at the start of the construction season to attract public attention to the importance of driving carefully through highway construction and repair sites. It is supported by ARTBA, the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse, FHWA, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the Associated General Contractors of America, the American Traffic Safety Services Association, the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Maryland State Highway Administration and the District of Columbia Department of Transportation.
To learn more about the event and to access the largest on-line library of information on roadway construction zone safety issues, visit www.workzonesafety.org.
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Posted: 4/9/2009
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