2019 National Work Zone Awareness Week

Starting Monday, April 8, and running to Friday, April 12, new blogs will be posted each day as part of our National Work Zone Awareness Week series. Highway workers, contractors and law enforcement will share stories highlighting why work zone safety is so important.
Thanks for reading and sharing these blogs to help improve safety in work zone.

Also, Go Orange is on Thursday, April 11, so please wear orange to show your support for everyone who works along the roadways. Orange lights will also be on all week at the following locations:



A view of City Hall in Topeka from last year.

• KDOT District offices in Topeka, Salina, Norton, Chanute, Hutchinson, and Garden City, as well as several KDOT Area offices
• Governor’s Mansion in Topeka
• Amelia Earhart Memorial Bridge in Atchison
• Visitor’s Center in the Capitol
• Eisenhower State Office Building in Topeka
• Front of the Topeka City Hall building
• Travel Information Center on I-70 near Goodland
  Also, more than 50 billboards across the state will feature KDOT highway workers for the first two weeks in April to help remind motorists to drive safely in work zones.

Kansas heroes:Transportation safety winners honored

The Kansas Department of Transportation honored five Kansans with Transportation Safety Recognition Awards for their efforts to improve traffic safety. The awards were presented today at the 25th Annual Transportation Safety Conference that took place April 2-3 in Wichita.

Recipients are honored in two categories - People Saving People Award and the Hero Award. 

The People Saving People Award recognizes an individual or organization that has made outstanding contributions to the improvement of transportation safety behavior in Kansas. The 2019 recipients are: 

Rita Lesser, Perry – Lesser teaches at Perry-Lecompton High School and also serves as the sponsor for SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everyone). As the SAFE sponsor, she teaches students about seat belt usage and distracted and impaired driving by creatively utilizing sidewalk messages, PSAs on YouTube, pledge cards, posters, window painting, health fair booths, drunk goggles and the Convincer (a crash simulator).

Amber Rollins, Olathe – Rollins is the Director of KidsAndCars.org, an organization that focuses attention on children left unattended in or around vehicles. She was instrumental in the passing of a Good Samaritan law (HB 2516) in Kansas to protect citizens from liability if they break into a vehicle to rescue a trapped child, vulnerable adult or animal.

Overland Park Police Department – The Overland Park Police Department utilized the Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) to significantly reduce the number of crashes at Oak Park Mall and two major intersections adjacent to the mall. Officers focused on hazardous traffic violations and made every effort to monitor seat belt violations, distracted driving, teen drivers and motorists driving while impaired. As a result, overall crashes were reduced by 17 percent - from 214 crashes in 2017 to 177 in 2018.

The Hero Award recognizes the individual who risked his or her own life for someone else when they happened upon a crash or while trying to prevent the likelihood of a crash in a one-time traffic safety-related incident. The 2019 recipients are:

Deputy Robert K. Kunze, III, Sedgwick County – Kunze demonstrated extreme bravery and courage during a traffic stop in which he was mortally wounded but still managed to pursue and capture his assailant. He very likely saved the lives of two citizens onsite at the traffic stop and all the responding law enforcement officers who followed.

Sergeant Mitchell Talley, Miami County – Talley responded to a medical call in which a man was bleeding from a self-inflicted four-inch laceration on the left side of his neck. Talley believed the victim had severed an artery, and he continuously applied pressure to the area until EMS arrived and took over. The man survived because of Talley’s meritorious actions.

#IAMKDOT: Kade Cooper

This month’s #IAMKDOT focuses on Highway Maintenance Supervisor Kade Cooper. He started in spring 2004 at the KDOT Mankato Subarea, then went to the Area crew and in 2011, was named the Supervisor in Belleville.

Cooper appreciates his work environment. “You don’t find many places that you enjoy the company of the people you’re working with,” he said. “And I like the hours in the summer so I can spend more time with the kids.”

Cooper coaches the baseball team for his son, Andrew, and attends softball games for his daughter, Kinley. He and his wife, Jackie, like to take the kids camping when they can. And they have a few cattle on his father-in-law’s farm that they take care of.

Cooper and his crew members are out on the highways year-round with overlay projects, right of way maintenance and snow removal operations. Winter brings a busier schedule, he said, with keeping all the equipment running, planning repairs with the mechanics, scheduling shift when storms come up, making sure pot holes are patched and stay patched as well as other maintenance duties.

We’re very dependent on the weather, Cooper said, and plans can get changed quickly. “We live in Kansas, if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes,” he joked.

Cooper has seen many improvements in work zone safety. “We’re very fortunate we have the tools we have for safety,” he said. Everything has a purpose – from the cones to the attenuators to the arrow boards to the people working in the lane. We’re out there for a reason.”

But motorists must pay attention and follow the signs. “There are times we’ve had close calls even with crash attenuators,” Cooper said. “Sometimes they’ll go around the attenuators and then try to get in the lane that we’re trying to block.”

When he’s not on the highway, Cooper assists co-workers and agency partners in various training efforts. Cooper is a certified bucket truck trainer throughout District Two. To work in a truck with a basket, employees must go through certification before they can do it by themselves. 

He also trains people for Traffic Incident Management. Cooper works with fire departments, local law enforcement, local utility companies and others to train people how to set up traffic control if there was an incident in their area. Then they can go back and train their staff, he said.

Below 100: Law enforcement training combats complacency with safe practices

By Priscilla Petersen, southeast Kansas Public Affairs Manager 

Transportation safety is for everyone all the time. We recently had a chance to sit in on safety training for law enforcement officers, which was sponsored by KDOT. 

“We’re still killing ourselves by driving too fast and not wearing our seat belts,” instructor Adam Kary reminded his audience of law enforcement officials. An officer with the Topeka Police Department, Kary visited Iola recently to present the “Below 100” training to southeast Kansas police, sheriff and highway patrol staff.

 Adam Kary of the Topeka Police Department conducts ‘Below 100’ training for area law enforcement officers.

Below 100 is based on “Honoring the Fallen by Training the Living.” As the course began, Kary had everyone close their eyes and imagine themselves at a funeral for a fellow officer killed in the line of duty.

Every year since 1943, more than 100 law enforcement officers have been lost to line-of-duty deaths (LODD’s). “We need to hold ourselves accountable for our own actions,” Kary said.

The goal of Below 100 is to take LODD’s down to less than 100 each year, and to continue to reduce law enforcement deaths by addressing five crucial areas:

• Wear seat belts;
• Wear vest (body armor);
• Watch speed;
• Decide what is most important now;
• Complacency kills.

Kary told the class that the three factors in vehicular LODD’s are excessive speed, not wearing seat belts, and being struck by another vehicle. He asked the group to consider the time it takes to drive from point to point, and to think about whether speeding would actually get them to their destinations more quickly. Kary added that vehicular stopping distances increase at higher speeds. “We are not just killing ourselves” by not controlling behaviors such as speeding, he said, but are putting others at risk.

Throughout the session Kary showed videos and camera footage from traffic stops to illustrate how important it is for officers to remain vigilant, keep themselves safe, and be able to prioritize what is most important about each traffic stop and interaction with the public. He encouraged officers to engage in ‘courageous conversations’ with colleagues about seat belt use and the other LODD contributing factors. “Ignored behavior is condoned behavior,” Kary said.

Although changing organizational policy and culture will take time, Kary reminded the group that “complacency kills.”

Kansas Officials Urge Drivers to Avoid Distracted Driving

Texting, other distractions have led to thousands of crashes in Kansas

TOPEKA, Kan. — In 2017, 28 percent of all traffic crashes in Kansas were attributed to driver inattention or distractions. April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month and the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) and law enforcement agencies across the state are working to educate drivers of the dangers of driving while distracted. Kansans will see a multi-media campaign running to support these efforts.

While distracted driving is most often associated with cell phone use, many other situations can cause distractions in the car. Interacting with children, eating food, using other electronic devices, and even things happening outside the vehicle contributed to more than 16,000 distracted driving crashes in Kansas in 2017.

“Taking your eyes off the road to send a text is like driving blindfolded down a football field,” said Chris Bortz, Traffic Safety Program Manager for KDOT. “You wouldn’t risk driving blindfolded, yet we see people on their phones or eating or putting on makeup every day on our roads.”

Many people may not know that distracted driving can be a ticketable offense in Kansas. For example, any texting, social media or internet activity on your phone can lead to a minimum $60 ticket plus court costs. However, the worst result of distracted driving would be to cause an injury or death.

“We are facing an epidemic. Too many people are injured or killed due to inattention on our roads. Distracted driving crashes are 100 percent preventable,” said KDOT Secretary Julie Lorenz. “Protecting yourself, your passengers and other Kansans is as simple as putting the phone down and avoiding all other distractions in the car.”

Law enforcement officers also encourage Kansans to “just drive” when they are behind the wheel. If your attention is anywhere other than the road, you’re driving distracted, and you’re driving dangerous. Drivers can minimize distractions by turning off electronic devices and keeping both eyes on the road ahead at all times. They also encourage passengers to hold their driver accountable and to not be a distraction themselves.

Pothole patrol

KDOT crews clear debris and dirt away.

By Lisa Mussman, 
Northwest Kansas Public Affairs Manager

After a long season of battling snow and ice, KDOT crews are starting to shift their focus to repairing the damage winter weather has left behind on the roads. Among that damage is a plethora of potholes dotting the pavement in all parts of the state.

Potholes are formed when moisture left over from snow and ice seeps into cracks in the pavement. When the temperature drops, water freezes and expands the pavement, causing it to bulge and crack. Cars driving over these trouble spots eventually cause the pavement to break up, forming a pothole.

KDOT has a variety of methods and tools available for pothole patching, one of them being spray patching. Spray patching is done with a specialized trailer mounted machine, reducing the need for many different pieces of equipment. Crews recently utilized this method on a portion of U.S. 36 in Norton.

The process begins with clearing any debris and dirt out of the hole.

One of the ways crews can repair a pothole is using the spray patching technique. 

 

A tack coat may then be applied, followed by a layer of emulsified asphalt and aggregate. The emulsion is essentially the glue that will hold the asphalt together in the hole.

Finally, the hole is topped with a layer of dry rock and excess materials are swept up. After a short curing period, the patch is ready to withstand traffic.

The final step of filling a pothole is by adding a layer of dry rock that will help the
 patch be able to withstand traffic. 

As KDOT begins to ramp up its pothole patrols, motorists are reminded to slow down and move over for crews working.

KDOT Secretary Lorenz confirmed by Senate

Julie Lorenz has been confirmed as Secretary
of the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Julie Lorenz was confirmed by the Senate today as Secretary of the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT).  Lorenz was appointed by Gov. Laura Kelly in January 2019. In her capacity as Secretary of KDOT, Lorenz also serves as the Director of the Kansas Turnpike Authority.

“Secretary Lorenz is an expert in the area of transportation and understands just how critical it is to the future of our economy and our state,” Gov. Kelly said. “She has been a state and national leader in transportation for two decades and Kansas is lucky to have her leading KDOT.”

“I am honored to serve as the Secretary of Transportation,” Lorenz said. “I look forward to working collaboratively with communities and constituencies across our state to develop a supportable vision for transportation, complete T-WORKS and craft the next transportation plan for long-term, sustainable success for all Kansans.”

This is Lorenz’s second tour of duty for KDOT, serving as the Director of Public Affairs and Special Assistant from 2003 to 2011. During that time, she led the development of several efforts at the agency, including the development and eventual legislative passage of the $8.2 billion, 10-year T-WORKS funding program in spring 2010.