Public Employee Press

Protecting members
Putting teeth behind work zone safety rules

Two city agencies have added camera-equipped trucks and other high-tech devices to encourage safer driving in and near union members' work zones and hold violators accountable.

DC 37 local leaders joined Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd April 8 to kick off National Work Zone Awareness Week, April 7-11, and launch the beefed up Zone Watch program.

DOT has added nine camera-equipped trailers and electronic signs to tell motorists how fast they are driving at sites where city employees maintain roads, bridges and tunnels. The safety initiative piggybacks on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero program to curb speeding and
accidents.

Two dozen DOT employees repairing the city's infrastructure have been injured in work zone traffic accidents since 2009 and seven have been killed in the last 20 years, including Local 376 Highway Repairer Nick Antico, who was run down in 2005 by a motorist speeding through a Staten Island work zone. Billboard safety ads statewide feature Antico's daughter, Arianna, and widow, Anna.

DC 37 Local Presidents Gene DeMartino of Local 376, Michael Coppola of DOT Supervisory Employees Local 1157 and Michael DeMarco of Traffic Employees Local 1455 and Local 983 1st Vice President Marvin Robbins joined Trottenberg, Lloyd, state and city lawmakers and a DOT crew in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, April 8 to announce the strengthened safety effort.

"While every motorist needs to do their part by slowing down, our enhanced Zone Watch program is an important tool to protect our workers," Trottenberg said.

"I hope motorists realize there are fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers in these work zones and they deserve to go home to their families at the end of the day," said Coppola.

"It is an honor for my local to partner with the commissioner and DOT on work zone safety awareness," said DeMarco, "because our goals and mission are the same: to keep workers safe at all times."