The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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  • Dale Plemmons, safety administrator for the Mankato MnDOT office, places the 30th chair marking the 30th MnDOT employee in the state killed during duty since 1960. The latest memorial is for Darrell Blackwell who was killed near Fairfax last fall. John Cross

    Worker memorial

  • The family of Darrell Blackwell, a MnDOT employee who was killed while mowing ditches last fall near Fairfax, watches as a chair with a vest, hard-hat and the date of his death is put in place during a memorial service Monday. John Cross

    Worker memorial 2

April 30, 2007

Memorial ceremony a call for safety

Work zones dangerous for workers, motorists

Tim Krohn

MANKATO — Darrell Blackwell was doing what he loved and doing what would make motorists safer when he mowed highway ditches last fall.

Blackwell, a Minnesota Department of Transportation worker for the Mankato district, died when the tractor he was driving near Fairfax was hit by a semi-tractor trailer truck.

He became the 30th MnDOT worker to die on the job in the state since 1960 and he held a special place during the annual Workers Memorial Day ceremony Monday in Mankato.

“The reason he was out there mowing was to keep the grass down to keep the snow from drifting in the winter to keep the roads safe,” said Dale Plemmons, the safety administrator for MnDOT in Mankato.

“When you see us out there (in the work zone), it’s not just a vest and hard hat, but someone’s father or mother or sister or son.”

During the ceremony, a chair with Blackwell’s name, a vest and a hard hat on it were placed in a line next to 29 others with the names of workers who died previously.

Dan Hilligoss, a lieutenant with the State Patrol, said there has been some success in the state Legislature in helping protect people in work zones. Fines are now double for any traffic offense in a work zone and motorists are required to slow down and move over as far as they can when coming up on an emergency vehicle stopped with its lights on.

“It’s the workers out there every day on the right-of-way making the roads safe who need recognition,” Hilligoss said.

Plemmons said it’s not just workers who are endangered by careless driving and speeding in work zones. “Four out of five work-zone fatalities are to motorists,” he said.

The memorial service wasn’t just for state employees but for workers across the state who die on the job or as a direct result of their work.

Lee Hiller, a union trades representative, read a list of state union workers who died last year. Some died from falls and accidents on the job, but several died from illnesses, particularly asbestos-related lung cancer.

Last year, the number of highway work zone crashes decreased and injuries decreased. There were more than 1,800 crashes in 2005 and 1,492 last year. The number of injuries fell from 905 to 637.

However, the number of fatalities increased from six in 2005 to eight in 2006.

Lt. Gov Carol Molnau, who also heads the transportation department, said in a press release the decline in crashes was encouraging, but that there were still too many.

“There will be hundreds of construction and maintenance operations on state highways and countless other tribal, county, city and township roads,” she said. “This intense level of activity requires that we all drive mindfully with extra care for our own safety and that of thousands of highway workers.”

For more information on the state’s construction season plans, go to www.mndot.gov.

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