The week marks

the Department of Transportation's annual awareness campaign aimed at

saving motorists' and employees' lives as they travel through and work

in road construction and maintenance work zones.

Last year,

a Department of Transportation employee was struck and killed by a vehicle

while working on one of metro Atlanta's roadsides. Just recently, the

DOT lost another employee in a work zone accident as Danny Wilbanks was

killed while working on Ga. Highway 372.

The campaign's

slogan is "Slow Down, It Won't Kill You."

"Our campaign

is geared to get motorists to slow down whether work zones appear to be

hazardous or not, or whether a work crew appears to be there or not,"

said DOT Commissioner Tom Coleman.

Since national

organizations began collecting the data in 1973, 53 DOT employees have

been killed in work zones.

The DOT has

instituted new safety policies and procedures, from using new larger,

highly-reflective safety vests to developing additional roadside signs

and messages that warn motorists of hazardous conditions and slower speed

limits as they approach work zones.