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Since January, the news has been overflowing with things to be outraged, downhearted, and frightened about. It’s like getting blasted with a firehose at full power from the moment I wake up and turn on the news or check my phone alerts to the moment I try to turn it off at night.
Part of the strategy at play here is to make us all feel like we have no control over what’s happening, like we have no influence in our own damn democracy, and basically to make us feel helpless. Now I don’t really believe that’s true, or I wouldn’t be fighting every day for our Union brothers and sisters on the job site and in the halls of power. But I get it.
However, there’s one place where I know I remain in complete control, and the same is true for all of us – when we get behind the wheel of a vehicle. This month marks the return of warmer weather, vacations, more road construction, and more distracted drivers on the road.
It also marks National Work Zone Awareness Week from April 21-25, and my message this year and every year is to stay in control. It might be the one place in life where you’re completely in charge of your actions and reactions, and lives depend on it.
In 2022, there were an estimated 96,000 work zone crashes, and 891 work zone fatalities. Those numbers are down from 2021, but it’s still way too many. Imagine that many accidents, that many deaths happening in your workplace – any workplace - just because people couldn’t stay in control.
Well, for our brothers and sisters out there working on roads and flagging around work sites, that’s their office, and those are the dangers they have to face every time they go to work.
It’s up to every one of us to set an example and stay in control. Other drivers, and our passengers, are watching us, so slow down, pay attention, don’t tail gate, and know all those phone notifications are still going to be there when you reach your destination. Don’t let anger and frustration shrink your thinking – your reactions are often the only thing completely within your power. Let’s make sure everyone gets home safe this year.
