Image: File / Pattison Media

By Trace Acres, Program Director - Road Safety at Work

OPINION

YOUR PERSPECTIVE: The real danger in roadside work zones isn’t the job – it’s our driving

Jun 29, 2025 | 10:00 AM

Picture your partner, your sibling, or your child working on the shoulder of a busy road as vehicles drive past, just inches away.

How confident would you feel that every driver would slow down? Not glance at their phone?

For thousands of roadside workers across B.C., that’s their reality. And far too often, it ends in tragedy.

That’s why Road Safety at Work’s Work Zone Safety campaign, supported by the Road Safety at Work Alliance, is urging drivers to slow down, stay alert, and respect all roadside safety signals and personnel. Everyone deserves to make it home safe: workers, drivers and their passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists alike.

From 2015 to 2024 in B.C., nine workers in roadside zones were killed and 267 injured. Each was someone’s partner, sibling, child, or best friend. Their injuries didn’t happen by chance. They were the result of poor driver decisions. They could have been prevented.

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When we choose to speed, check our phones, or ignore traffic signs and traffic control persons in work zones, we put lives in danger.

Minor delays or temporary detours are needed to ensure crews can do the work that keeps our communities functioning. To show our appreciation, let’s give workers our patience and respect. They’re depending on us to do the right thing.

Whether it’s on a highway or a residential street, if someone’s working near traffic, it’s a work zone — even if there are no cones or flashing lights.

So the next time you pass a roadside worker, think of someone you love. Then reduce your speed, move over if you can, ignore your phone, and focus on the road.

We each have the power to protect lives when we’re behind the wheel. Let’s use it.

Visit RoadSafetyAtWork.ca to learn how to drive safely through work zones.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of Fraser Valley Today or Pattison Media.