Tennessee transportation employees have had some close calls in work zones recently, with the most recent happening in Coffee County on Thursday when a driver struck a state Help truck on Interstate 24.
So far this year, state transportation vehicles have been struck 73 times, and officials are urging drivers to slow down in work zones, Beth Emmons, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Transportation, said in a news release.
(READ MORE: Construction worker struck inside closed lanes on I-75 in Chattanooga)
Of those 73 incidents, 15 involved the state’s Help trucks, Emmons said in the release.
Help trucks, part of a program started in 1999, patrol Tennessee’s most heavily traveled highways in Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville to help reduce traffic congestion, improve safety and assist motorists in distress.
On Thursday in Coffee County, a driver hit a state transportation truck sitting in traffic on I-24, according to Emmons. There were no serious injuries. Coffee County is in South Central Tennessee. Manchester is the county seat.
On Aug. 2, a Help truck driver had stopped to remove debris on Interstate 640 west in Knoxville when he was nearly run over by a driver who lost control, Emmons said.
(READ MORE: Tennessee highway worker dies in roadside accident)
In a dashboard camera video, the transportation employee can be seen walking along the left shoulder of the interstate to retrieve a traffic cone in the middle of one of the lanes when a white passenger car skidded out of control past him into the center median, spraying pieces of bodywork as it went. The worker then grabbed the cone, returned to his truck and drove forward to the point the crashed vehicle came to rest to assist the driver.
The driver was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover.
“We are seeing an alarming increase of unsafe and distracted drivers across Tennessee,” Butch Eley, deputy governor and agency commissioner, said in the release. “There have been 73 instances in 2024 where TDOT workers and equipment have been struck by motorists, resulting in serious injuries to both our workers and the drivers of those vehicles. Motorists need to follow the law and put down their phones as well as move over and slow down when emergency and roadside workers are present.”
— Compiled by Ben Benton
Tennessee Department of Transportation / A driver on Interstate 24 struck a Tennessee Department of Transportation truck sitting on the roadside in Coffee County on Thursday. While there were no injuries, state officials are urging drivers to slow down in work zones in light of 73 incidents in which state transportation vehicles were struck, some resulting in serious injuries.