![]() ![]() Those on handheld devices or drivers who don’t move over when appropriate could also face a doubled fine. But it’s not just limited to speeding violations. Instead of the normal $200 citation for going over the speed limit, that gets doubled to $400. The people Braun caught breaking the law were issued citations with a little more oomph. Sometimes the education through a warning isn’t enough. ![]() It could save their life, just by education.” You may not see that but if you stop one speeder going 80 mph in a construction zone, educating them, either just by talking to them or a citation, that could change their driving behavior in the future. “I do feel like it’s making people safer,” Braun said. But it’s the outliers he’s aiming to educate so families like Heather’s and Becki’s aren’t put through this trauma again. “Not only are we out here to protect the construction workers to ensure they’re safe and can get this project done in a timely manner, we’re out here for the other drivers.”īraun says the vast majority of drivers he sees follow the rules. “You have to focus on speed, following too closely, things like that,” Braun said. While most drivers, he says, were going within 5 to 10 mph of the 60 mph construction zone speed limit, there are constantly those pushing the limits. “Making sure you’re paying attention to what you’re doing.”īraun showed the I-Team what he sees on a stretch of a construction zone on I-43 in Ozaukee County. “Every traffic stop we make is an experience or an opportunity to educate a driver on safe driving habits,” Master Trooper Brendan Braun said. It’s why State Patrol is regularly parked on these thoroughfares to try and intercept problematic drivers. In the past five years, 11,768 crashes recorded, there were 4,370 injuries, not including those 63 people killed. On average, there was a crash in a construction zone every four hours last year. Since 2018, 63 people were killed in construction zones, according to Wisconsin DOT. In Wisconsin, about a dozen people are killed in construction zones every year. “I just kept thinking, it’s a construction zone,” Stempa said. Those protections, Stempa felt, would be enough to protect her larger-than-life husband. People pay attention, they go slower.”Īll that stands between highway workers and 2-ton projectiles are some orange barrels, and maybe some “Road Closed” signs. “I always kind of thought he was exaggerating a little bit. “He would tell me there would be close calls,” Stempa said. Stempa says she was never too concerned about safety on the highway. “Where they were working, I figured that there’s no way this person had been going fast enough to cause that much damage.” “I did not think that was a possibility,” Stempa said. Heather Stempa Their time together was cut short because of a construction zone crash, but Heather Stempa says Derek made an enormous impact on their family's life. Life is much different for Heather and her two children without Derek. But suddenly, that morning in May, 2015, all of that was gone. Their love quickly turned into an engagement, a marriage and two kids. The goofy veteran made an immediate imprint on her heart with how kind and caring he was. Less than a decade earlier, she was eyeing a cute guy at a bar in Milwaukee, too nervous to go up to him herself. “I got to go.”Īt the hospital, she learned the love of her life had not survived the crash. “I ran up and told my boss, Derek just got hit by a car,” Stempa said. While at work, Heather was told she had to call Derek’s boss because there was an accident. But that day required him to hold the flag. For the Army National Guard veteran, he was upset that day because normally, he worked as a truck operator. ![]() Stempa’s husband, Derek, was working as a flagger in Shawano County in 2015 when he was struck by a distracted driver in a construction zone. Six years later, he was gone after a deadly crash in a construction zone in Shawano County. Heather Stempa Heather and Derek Stempa were married in 2009. ![]()
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