construction slow

The Province of Saskatchewan and the RCMP have joined forces to improve safety in Saskatchewan's construction zones.

As of yesterday the RCMP will amp up their enforcement in the busiest Orange Zones across the province.

"This of course came about because of the unfortunate and tragic death of 18 year old Ashley Richards who was a flag person for a contractor on one of our construction projects," Deputy Minister of Highways and Infrastructure Rob Penny said about what sparked the newest blitz, "we got a lot of feedback from the public, from contracters, from a number of different areas about what we should do and one of the highlighted areas was increased enforcement through construction zones."

Penny added the Government's first priority in this blitz is to ensure highway workers are safe.  In the coming weeks they will be announcing further measures to protect workers and ensure drivers are following the rules of the road especially in Orange Zones.

"We are going to try to encourage driver behavior to follow the rules of the road if they are travelling through a construction zone, so we partnered with the RCMP for this fall to try to encourage drivers to change their behavior when they go through those zones."

He also added it is important for motorists to be aware of their surroundings before, during and after travelling through construction zones.  Drivers play a key role in keeping construction workers safe.