The state of Maryland has made strides in improving work zone safety since the deaths of six workers in a high-profile accident in 2023, but two recent fatalities on the state’s highways provide grim reminders of the challenges all states face in protecting highway activities.
Maryland has made strides in improving work zone safety. Credit Maryland State Highway Administration The incident, which is still under investigation, came three days after an MDOT Highway Safety Patrol worker was killed during a response to the scene of the crash on an on-ramp to the I-495 Capital Beltway. According to Maryland State Police, the worker was installing traffic cones when he was struck by an oncoming vehicle.As with other states, Maryland has relied on awareness campaigns such as the recent National Work Zone Awareness Week to alert drivers to the dangers routinely faced by the estimated 1,000 workers deployed each day to approximately 300 work zones across the state. The National Highway Transportation Administration reports that while work zone fatalities (including workers, drivers and passengers) decreased nationally by about 6% in 2023-2024, the percentage of work zone fatalities where speeding was a factor has increased, as have those involving rear-end collisions.
Speeding was found to be a contributing factor in the 2023 fatal incident in Baltimore, when a collision between two vehicles traveling well above the 55 mph speed limit sent one of them flying through an access opening into a work zone where it struck several construction materials and the six workers. Both drivers pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges and received prison sentences.
In the months that followed, a multidisciplinary task force chaired by Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller, herself a former transportation engineer who won a 2023 ENR Newsmaker Award, drew on input from technical experts and the public to develop regulatory and operational recommendations in education, engineering and enforcement. One result of that effort, the Maryland Highway Worker Protection Act of 2024, authorized the State Highway Administration (SHA) to expand its deployment of speed cameras and other technology in construction, maintenance and utility zones while establishing an updated system of fines based on how fast a vehicle is traveling over the posted speed limit. Fines are doubled when workers are present.
In addition, the legislation has given SHA greater latitude in the use of speed cameras. “Where previously radar had to have an operator present, we can now use more mobile and unmanned equipment to support work zones as well as other types of operations,” says State Highway Administrator Will Pines. “For larger projects, we use the point-to-point application to calculate vehicle speed across longer areas that include work zones.”
SHA data shows that in 2025, the first full year of implementation of the program, the number of work zone accidents was also reduced by 12% in 2025, to 1,148. Last year there were nine fatalities in work zones, a decrease of 25%.
“Interestingly, we’ve deployed more cameras across the state, but citations are 17 percent lower,” Pines adds. “Our motorists, as well as those driving through Maryland, are beginning to understand that excessive speed that puts workers at risk is not acceptable.”
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SHA also promotes the deployment of other technologies in work zones, such as automated signaling systems and safety vest emergency lights.
While preliminary data for 2026 shows a continued and gradual downward trend in work zone crashes, Pines says the real challenge is changing cultural perceptions of speed. Among the citations issued for work zone speed violations in 2025, 19 involved drivers traveling more than 130 mph.
“We love speed and assume it’s good,” says Pines. “We need to educate people that this is not the case.”
Highway contractors and their employees should also be part of that effort, he adds.
“We encourage them to have conversations with families and friends about being safer, and setting a good example when they’re behind the wheel,” Pines explains. “Everyone deserves to go home safely.”
