CREVE COEUR, Mo.—Transportation officials and law enforcement agencies across the bi-state are hoping to buck recent trends that highlight the dangers of carrying out road construction projects in the region.

During a Tuesday morning news conference to promote National Work Zone Awareness Week not far from a project just getting underway on Interstate 270 at Interstate 64, the numbers came rattling off. 

In 2023, there were 35 fatalities in Missouri work zone crashes, setting a record. Statewide in Illinois, there were 23 deaths in work zones. According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, protective vehicles, which warn motorists of construction nearby, were struck 63 times last year. That number is up to 3 so far in 2024.

One of the most common causes leading to the numbers? Distracted driving.

There is hope in Missouri that a new law that took effect last August that bans the holding or handling of cell phones while driving will eat into some of the problem. Data from Cambridge Mobile Telematics shows an almost eight percent drop in distracted driving since then, according to AAA of Missouri. 

But there are caveats. It is considered a secondary violation, meaning law enforcement would need another reason to take action to initiate a traffic stop. Penalties won’t be in effect until January of 2025.

In the meantime, the Missouri State Highway Patrol is beefing up saturation patrols in work zones and Illinois State Police say to expect to see marked photo speed enforcement vans around the state which can capture the face and license plates of speeding drivers. 

Officials are also amplifying the stores of family tragedies when construction zone workers are injured or killed in crashes.

“Signs are posted for a reason, speed limits are set in place for a reason. We as drivers need to acknowledge the fact that everyone on the road, whether it be fellow drivers, first responders or road workers all have families to go home to,” said Kelby Herbel, who lost her grandfather Lyndon Ebker, who died while working as a flag man on a Franklin County road construction site in 2016.

Ebker’s death inspired Lyndon’s Law, a 2019 bill signed by Gov. Mike Parson which allows the Missouri Department of Revenue to revoke the driver’s license of anyone who hits a highway or utility worker in a work zone.

“Whether you encounter a small crew patching potholes or multiple workers on major bridge project, the people you pass working behind those cones and those barricades are somebody’s family member or neighbor and they just want to get home at the end of the day, same as you,” said Illinois Department of Transportation Engineer Joel Cumby, who noted that the state saw almost 6,000 work zone crashes last year.

“We can and must do better,” he said.