‘Rap’ Video Wears an Orange Vest

A new “rap” music video featuring television teen heartthrob Richard Grieco asks young motorists to drive safely around California Department of Transportation highway workers.

“Caltrans workers lay their lives on the line every day just so you can cruise through life in the fast lane,” says Grieco, star of “Booker” and “21 Jump Street” and celebrity spokesman for Caltrans’ “Give ‘em a Brake” campaign.

Copies of the 4 1/2-minute video, with rap music by “New Choice,” a female trio from Sacramento which recently signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers, were sent to 1,700 California high schools last August for use in driver’s education classes, Caltrans spokeswoman Tracey Weatherby said.

The video will get its Sacramento premiere Monday night at a comedy club.

Radio and television advertisements based on the video are being produced and will be shipped to broadcasters over the next several weeks, she said.

“We wanted to speak to the students in their own language about the dangers of highway work,” Weatherby said. “Our main message is to respect and protect our highway workers and themselves as well.

“Our intention was to speak to them, instead of talking down to them or preaching to them,” she said.

The “Give ‘em a Brake” program was started in 1982 after 19 Caltrans highway workers had been killed in 10 years by errant drivers who strayed into the work zone.

Since the program’s inception seven years ago, five Caltrans workers have been killed by motorists.

Weatherby said the new video, developed with the aid of the California Assn. for Safety Educators, will help teach a new generation of drivers to look out for highway workers.

“We have a captive audience there (in school). They are learning the proper procedures of driving. If we can teach them, then we’ll have a whole new generation of drivers who will respect the people trying to improve the conditions of the highway,” Weatherby said.