The country is nearing the end of National Work Zone Awareness Week, and one Emporian is working to make that awareness a year-’round priority.
Mabel Cunningham and Gary Burroughs were at the Capitol Building in Topeka on Monday to take part in a Kansas Department of Transportation ceremony to remember those who have become statistics in work zone fatalities.
Cunningham’s husband, Richard, was killed on Aug. 1, 2005, as he and Burroughs were working on Kansas Highway 130, approximately seven miles south of Neosho Rapids.
Cunningham, 46, and Burroughs, 56, both KDOT workers, were standing by a dump truck when a northbound tractor-trailer, driven by Leonard T. Marks Jr., 49, of Manhattan, hit the dump truck from behind. The dump truck was pushed into the east ditch and pinned both men beneath it.
Burroughs received critical injuries and was flown to Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka. He has since recovered and returned to work with some limitations, Cunningham said.
Marks refused treatment at the scene. In May 2007, he was found not guilty of vehicular homicide and battery and was found guilty on two lesser charges, speeding and failure to yield right-of-way to the highway construction vehicle.
The accident near Neosho Rapids came less than two months after a fatal crash on U.S. Highway 75 near Topeka. Marvin “Scott” McDonald was picking up trash alongside the highway when a car struck and killed him.
The gathering in Topeka also honored the life of former Emporian Tyrone “Ty” Korte, 30, who was killed in an accident on Sept. 11, 2007, on Highway 59 near Pleasant Grove.
Korte, the only son of Thomas and Wilma Niehues Korte, had graduated from Emporia State University in 2001 with a degree in political science and economics. He was an engineering technician and was working at the time of the accident, which also killed a contractor’s employee, Rolland Griffith, 24, of El Dorado.
In addition to Cunningham and Burroughs, the ceremony was attended by Korte’s and McDonald’s parents.
The men were among the 30 KDOT workers who have been killed on the job since 1950, Cunningham said, showing statistics provided by KDOT. A total of 279 people have been killed in work zone crashes since 1990.
“They don’t realize besides taking someone else’ life, they can get killed, too,” Cunningham said of the large proportion of drivers and passengers who die in the work zone accidents. “It’s not just KDOT workers, it’s children, other drivers.”
In August last year, Cunningham went to Illinois to visit a national memorial to people who had been killed in work-zone accidents. It made her more determined to become an advocate for new laws to try to provide more protection for workers in those areas.
Gov. Sebelius last year ordered signs installed in work areas to warn drivers of their responsibility to yield to maintenance and emergency workers.
Cunningham drove out to the bypass construction area west of town to see the sign that was spurred by her husband’s death.
“People were flying by, knocking over cones,” she said. “People don’t slow down. People don’t know it just takes a second to destroy a life. The pain stays. It’s been a rough road, a very rough road, for family and friends.”
Cunningham wants to work toward creating a fund that will help finance increased law-enforcement patrol of work areas, in addition to changing laws. She has talked with state Sen. Jim Barnett to gain his support, KDOT Secretary Deb Miller, and Kansas Highway Patrol officials, and that is just the beginning.
“I’m going to start working to change some laws, get some speed limits lowered,” she said. “If we can save one life, it’s worth it.”
A trial is scheduled for April 21, 22, and 23 in Osage County Court for Ramona Morgan, 48, of Chewelah, Wash., who has been charged in two counties in connection with Korte’s death and the vehicle chase that ensued. Morgan allegedly tried to outrun law enforcement officers from south of Lawrence to Scranton, where Osage County deputies managed to stop her after throwing down stop spikes on the highway.
She is accused of felony charges of fleeing, attempting to elude officers, and other traffic charges in Osage County.
Morgan also faces charges of two counts of reckless second-degree murder in Douglas County.
lisalp (anonymous) says...
Please always remember when you are going thru a construction zone someones mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, son or daughter is working there and would like to be able to go home to their family!!!!!!!! All you have to do is slow down!!!!!!!!!!!! Is that going to kill you??? Maybe you should of left a little earlier!!!!!!!!!!!!1
April 11, 2008 at 10:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )