PENNDOT Memorial to honor deceased workers

The name of a Mercer County PennDOT worker is on a traveling memorial to highway workers killed on the job.
MERCER, Pa. -- Six people from northwestern Pennsylvania are among the 75 state highway workers killed on the job since 1970.
Their names will be featured on a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation memorial to be unveiled next week as part of the state's plan to get serious about speeding in highway construction work zones this year.
It will be a traveling memorial consisting of 75 white crosses, each engraved with the name of an employee who died at work.
Local victim: One of those victims was from Mercer County.
Dennis P. Miller, 40, an equipment operator from Mercer, died when he was run over by a dump truck at a work site on Interstate 80 in Wolf Creek Township in October 1997.
Pennsylvania State Police said Miller was standing on the road shoulder behind a PennDOT dump truck and was facing away from the truck when it backed up, knocking him down and crushing him.
The memorial was created by a PennDOT maintenance crew in Bradford County to raise awareness of work zone safety.
It will crisscross the state and will be in District 1-0, which covers Mercer, Crawford, Venango, Warren, Forest and Erie counties, now through April 19.
All six counties have a worker represented in the memorial.
Also included: In addition to Miller, N.B. Matthews was killed in Warren County in 1972; C. Passauer was killed in Forest County in 1973; P.L. Anderson was killed in Venango County in 1981; and C. Burinwas killed in Erie County and N.V. Orr was killed in Crawford County, both in 1984.
PennDOT safety experts are also introducing new types of signs and equipment to help create safer work zones, said Roy Wilt Jr., safety press officer for District 1-0.
Portable "My mommy, my daddy works here" signs will encourages motorists to view highway workers on a more personal level and there will be automated flashing warning signs that display the speed of passing vehicles in work zones, he said.
"Operation Yellow Jacket" will place state troopers with radar and other devices in yellow PennDOT work vehicles to catch speeders and reckless drivers, Wilt said.
PennDOT workers are also being trained to gather information on reckless/negligent drivers in work zones and to pass that information on to state police, who will issue citations, he said.