The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was awarded a traffic safety subgrant in the amount of $175,000.00 by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for the Work Zone Education and Enforcement Operation.
The purpose of the program is to educate the community about work zone safety and to conduct high visibility operations in an effort to decrease crashes occurring in a work zone within Hillsborough County and the funding supports overtime for deputies.
The National Work Zone Safety Campaign Information Clearinghouse reported that there were 774 fatal crashes and 857 fatalities in 2020. This demonstrates a 10.5% increase in fatal crashes and a 10.7% increase in fatalities from 2019 to 2020.
According to a National Work Zone Awareness Week brochure for April 2022, speed was a contributing factor in over 37% of 2020 fatal work zone crashes, increasing from 32% in 2019.
The contract was executed on December 01, 2023 and the program will run through September 30, 2024.