Connecticut honors roadway workers killed on the job, urges safer driving
Connecticut officials and highway workers are urging drivers to slow down, stay off their phones, and pay closer attention in work zones as the state honors lives lost on the job and prepares to roll out work zone speed cameras this summer.
The message came during National Work Zone Awareness week in Farmington, where state leaders highlighted the dangers facing Department of Transportation workers and pointed to data showing more than 2,600 crashes in Connecticut work zones between 2021 and 2023, including 12 deaths.
In Farmington, with damaged work zone equipment nearby and a tribute to fallen DOT employees on display, the mother of CTDOT maintainer Andrew DiDomenico made an emotional plea. DiDomenico was killed by an impaired driver in a work zone in 2024.
“No parent should have to turn their child’s story into a reminder, and yet, here I am, because if Andrew’s story can save even one life, then his impact continues,” Shari DiDomenico said.
Officials said work zones are workplaces, and the choices drivers make can mean life or death for the people inside them.
“Don’t be stupid,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “If you’re driving by, pay extra special attention. Get off the damn phone.”
David Ferraro, a CTDOT transportation engineer, said he continues to live with serious injuries after he was hit by a drunk driver in a work zone on I-95 in Greenwich.
“I live in severe pain every day in my life. Thank God I’m able to still do my work, and I enjoy my work very much,” Ferraro said.
Ferraro said he believes driver behavior has worsened since COVID and wants lawmakers to do more.
“I’d like to see the legislature actually do more to enforce laws and also to create laws,” Ferraro said.
Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said the state has been talking with lawmakers about increasing penalties.
He said he would have liked to see that the woman who killed DiDomenico in 2024 had received a sentence longer than five years.
“We’ve been in discussions with legislators about what can we do to increase penalties,” Eucalitto said.
The commissioner pointed to how the department is backing a bill that would increase penalties and could include possible jail time for drivers using a cell phone in a work zone.
“From my perspective, if you’re driving through a work zone and you’re using your cell phone, that should be reckless driving. So I think we need to continuously look at those cases were we feel justice was not fully served,” Eucalitto said.
Additionally, after years of testing, Connecticut’s work zone speed cameras are expected to begin issuing tickets this summer.
The commissioner said it has approval to launch the cameras and hopes they will go live in June. Officials said there will be a warning period before tickets are issued.
Asked what the testing period showed, Eucalitto said: “People are speeding, every single day. Excessive amounts of speeding.”
Federal Highway Administration Administrator Sean McMaster, who attended the press conference to kick off the safety awareness week, said the goal is simple: protect the people working along Connecticut highways.
“Everyone working on the side of the road deserves to go to work and come home safely every day,” McMaster said.
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