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State officials encourage safe driving during Work Zone Awareness Week

It’s Work Zone Awareness Week in North Carolina, and the message from state officials is to “slow down, pay attention, and don’t drive distracted.” They’re asking that motorists pay particular attention in work zones.

According to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, 171 people were killed in North Carolina work zones between 2018 and 2022. Officials say speeding and distracted driving are major factors in over half of all work zone crashes.

Also this week, a National Work Zone Memorial was unveiled at the Northampton County Welcome Center.

The traveling memorial includes a tribute to former NCDOT employee Anna Bradshaw, who was killed in August 2022 while flagging traffic in a Wilson County work zone. Several of Bradshaw’s former colleagues took part in Monday’s unveiling.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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