More and more “Temporary Red Light Signals” are being used on Texas rural roads and bridges to control motorists from being involved in a work zone wreck, but drivers still break the law and put their lives at risk of a head on crash.
Traffic signals continue to be a staple of Texas Department of Transportation and other DOTs around the United States.
They are being used day and night on two-lane roads that are reduced to just one-lane for both directions.
Adele Lewis, district TxDOT public information officer, reported in a release this technology is an alternative to placing two human flaggers at the work ends and reduces the danger to workers.
Highway construction workers are killed at an alarming rate. In 2018 only one road employee died and more than 100 injured, but in 2019 so far there have been six highway workers killed and 110 seriously injured.
A potentially dangerous situation was avoided at a construction area outside Bowie recently where one of these signals was in use.
A driver ran the red light. One of the workers stopped the man and then he kept going on a one-lane road. Coming in the opposite direction was a convoy of traffic lead by a worker. Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.