Caltrans Asks for Caution in ‘Cone Zones’

With freeway work increasing under the state’s largest transportation budget, the California Department of Transportation has launched a $3.5-million ad campaign warning motorists to be cautious around work crews making road improvements.

Since 1924, 157 Caltrans employees have been killed and hundreds more injured in the line of duty, most of them victims of errant motorists who have plowed into crews working on the freeways.

Caltrans officials fear the death toll may climb with the increase in freeway construction under the $5.3-billion transportation budget approved by Gov. Gray Davis in 2000.

By the end of the year, one in every five miles of state highways will be under repair or improvement under the governor’s budget.

An average of two Caltrans workers die each year while on duty. Their names are added to a plaque at Caltrans headquarters in Sacramento.

In April of each year, Caltrans officials hold a news conference and a ceremony to remember the fallen workers.

In past ceremonies, orange cones were used to represent each Caltrans fatality.

For each Caltrans death, said Caltrans spokesman Bob Connor, nearly 50 motorists are killed in accidents at freeway work zones.

Over the years, Caltrans has launched several campaigns to warn drivers about the problem.

The latest statewide campaign is Caltrans’ most expensive effort to spotlight the deaths, Connor said.

The campaign began with television ads last month and will continue with radio ads this month and billboards in the next few weeks. The campaign will continue for 90 days in English and Spanish.

The television spots show motorists speeding past orange cones and Caltrans workers on the side of a road. A narrator says:

“Somehow, the family and friends of people who have been injured and killed in highway work zones see orange cones differently than the average driver....

“Please slow for the cone zone.”

The ad ends with a close-up of an orange cone and a handful of flowers, representing a memorial to a killed Caltrans worker.

The Caltrans campaign was designed by Glass McClure Advertising of Sacramento, which is known for its ads for Amtrak and Sizzler restaurants.