TxDOT brings awareness to drivers about work zone safety

remember, we stream our newscasts live at kvia.com and on the abc-seven mobile app. so as long as you’re by your computer on your your smart phone you can watch every newscast … every day.. from anywhere. and you can also get round the clock news updates from abc-seven on social media. just “like” the kvia.co facebook page … and follow us on twitter at- abc-seven-breaking on twitter. welcome back to abc-seven at six, i’m estela cas. and i’m bob harp. if you already follow us on twitter … we’ve re-tweeted a few posts that are really putting a face and name to a dangerous job. highway construction. the texas department of transportation wants to remind you their crews working on highway projects are real people… with real families waiting for them to get home safely. abc-7’s iris lopez is live in our social media center with the story. estela, this is how txdot is trying to get its message across. by using pictures of construction workers with their children they want you to rember construction workers have families who need them. children they want you to remember construction workers have families who need them. across. by using pictures of construction workers with their children they want you to remember construction workers have families who need them. joe moody: “frustration is on thing tragedy is quite another.” 40 years ago, state rep joe moody’s uncle was killed in a work zone accident. “there was a driver coming too fast, and he wasn’t paying attention and unfortunately he was killed in that accident and he left a widow and four young children to fend for themselves.” back in may of 2015 2 construction workers were killed while working overnight. el paso police say a drunk driver was to blame. “our construction area, that’s our office that’s where we report to work. if you see these construction areas the contractors they drive to that location.” becaus of fatalities like that, txdot has placed big trucks with signs in front of construction workers. this helps prevent those workers from being hit. “speeding, using your phone while driving. those are only a few reason why txdot says construction fatalities occur.” “they’re no paying attention, they’re distracted their multi- tasking, they’re not focusing on their priorities which is to drive.” txdot officials say workzone crashes increased 13-percent last year. they hope to bring that number back down in 2016. “it’s not worth the speed it’s not worth being inattentive because what you can do is cause permanent damage to a family whos loved one is out there on the roadway.” take a look at some more of these pictures posted on txdot’s twitter page. all these pictures are just a friendly reminder to drivers that construction workers want to get back to their familes too. speaking of highway construction …