New bill aims to improve roadside worker safety in Wisconsin

[TowNews]

Roadside worker safety: New bill aims to improve it in Wisconsin

 

MILWAUKEE - If your vehicle has ever broken down on the side of the interstate, you know that feeling of having to sit there while cars and trucks zip past you. It is unsettling. 

 

For many roadside workers, this is their experience every day on the job. But a new bill seeks to make that job a little safer. 

 

"We simply mounted some cameras to the sides of our emergency roadside assistance vehicles to show what do our technicians experience when they are on the roadside assisting our members," said Nick Jarmusz, AAA Director of Public Affairs. "It’s a daily risk that these essential workers who are out there servicing our members take."

 

But thanks in part to them and a bipartisan group of Wisconsin legislators, a new law seeks to keep those essential workers safer. 

 

"Unfortunately, the law that is currently on the books in Wisconsin is not a particularly strong, or easily enforceable law. This new legislation would correct that, and enhance these protections," Jarmusz said.

 

But thanks in part to them and a bipartisan group of Wisconsin legislators, a new law seeks to keep those essential workers safer. 

 

"Unfortunately, the law that is currently on the books in Wisconsin is not a particularly strong, or easily enforceable law. This new legislation would correct that, and enhance these protections," Jarmusz said.

 

It would create safe zones on construction sites. It would encourage safer driving habits and increase penalties for reckless driving.

 

"Bringing them really up on par with what we see as far as protections for construction workers. By creating this zone of safety where people are required to exercise more caution, and penalties for violations in that zone," Jarmusz said.

 

The next time you see a car pulled over on the side of the road, you are urged to move away from them.

 

"I think it’s just important to remember that these workers – they’re trying to help folks. And they want to get home safely at the end of their shifts as well," Jarmusz said.

AAA officials tell FOX6 News they expect this bipartisan measure to pass into law in the coming weeks.

 

RESOURCE LINK with video