With warmer weather and construction season approaching, the Missouri Department of Transportation is urging motorists to be extra cautious in work zones.

Northwest District Engineer Chris Redline said since 2000, 13 MoDOT workers have been killed in work zones.

“That’s awful. The public is even more at risk in work zones, because 16 drivers lost their lives in work zones last year and almost 60 in the last five years, so people just really need to… put your phone down and pay attention to what you’re doing,” Redline said.

This week is National Work Zone Awareness Week and MoDOT staff, along with local law enforcement are urging motorists to pay attention and drive carefully through work zones so everyone arrives home safely.

Sergeant Jake Angle is the Public Information and Education Officer with Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop H. Angle said anytime there are signs designating work zone speed changes or workers present to pay attention to those.

“Even if the zone appears unoccupied, a lot of times there’s even people in there standing up cones from the day’s work or they are in there doing clean up work or other things behind the actual construction workers, so just because you don’t see a lot of workers present there still may be workers present and we need to heed those signs,” Angle said. “We talk to people all the time about paying attention, not being distracted when they’re going down the roadway… when you enter those construction zones, the risks increase so we need people to extra attention. That’s why we need them to put seatbelts on, put the phones down, pay attention to what’s going on, not just in construction zones but especially in construction zones.”

The MSHP reported that cellphone-involved crashes in 2016 resulted in 14 fatalities, 88 serious injuries and 1,020 minor injuries. Of those crashes, 24 occurred in work zones.

For more information on National Work Zone Awareness Week and the Buckle Up Phone Down challenge, click here.