To combat an average of 1,400 crashes in Pennsylvania road work zones every year, the state Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Turnpike have developed an online course for new drivers.
The 35-minute video is designed to teach new drivers their responsibilities in a work zone and the challenges they could encounter, such as reduced speed, slow traffic and narrower-than-normal lanes. The class includes a quiz at the end, and getting eight of 10 questions correct entitles the driver to receive a certificate, but passing the course is not a requirement for obtaining a driver’s license.
Pennsylvania is the second state in the country to offer such a course behind Oklahoma. Turnpike spokeswoman Marissa Orbanek said the state could offer incentives for completing the course in the future, but for now the agencies are promoting it to school districts with driver’s education programs and private companies that teach driving courses with a recommendation for students to complete it.
The video reminds new drivers of facts such as speeding fines being doubled in work areas, rear-end crashes being the most likely because of unexpected slow or stopped traffic, and drivers being more likely than construction workers to be killed in work zones. It includes emotional interviews with a worker hurt in a work zone, a teenage driver responsible for fatal work zone accident and a parent whose child was killed in a work zone accident.
Tim Rogers, president of Rogers Driving School in Shaler, said he’s familiar with the on-line course and thinks it does a good job pointing out the dangers. Most schools no longer offer theory classes because they are available online from PennDOT, but Rogers said his instructors discuss those issues when student drivers come across work zones during in-vehicle training.
The class is another tool the state is using to encourage drivers to slow down and pay more attention when they are driving in a work zone. In March, a law allowing electronic speed enforcement in a work zone became permanent after a three-year test period.
Under the law, technicians in white Jeep Cherokees on the side of the road in a work zone check a vehicle’s speed, take a photo of the license plate if it is more than 11 miles an hour above the speed limit and mail a ticket to the vehicle owner. The first violation leads to a warning followed by a $75 fine for the second and $150 for the third, but the violations are civil penalties and do not lead to points on a driver’s record.
During the trial period, crashes declined as much as 50%, speeding dropped by 47%, and only 17% of drivers cited for speeding committed another work zone violation.
Rogers said those declines are to be expected.
“It’s like anything else: If you enforce it, you have better results,” he said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.