The I-695 crash hit Lt. Gov. of Maryland Aruna Miller differently than most politicians.
"I spent 25 years as a transportation engineer," she told WMAR-2 News. "I know the great danger men and women who work at these sites expose themselves to each and every single day."
The day those six road workers lost their lives on the inner loop, she was already talking about making the roadways safer.
I am so sorry to hear about the tragic loss of life. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. Let us work together to promote greater road safety. https://t.co/7O1hbRcptz
— Aruna Miller (@arunamiller) March 22, 2023
The following month, Governor Wes Moore put Miller in charge of a workgroup to make work zones in Maryland safer.
The workgroup's recommendations came out last November and included both legislative changes and cultural and educational changes.
We asked about changing the culture of driving in Maryland, and while she acknowledged the task would be difficult and take time, Miller says it's been done before.
"For example, seat belts 35 years ago, looked a lot different than it does today. They were able to bring a culture change through education, [and a] public safety campaign, through enforcement and legislation," she said. "Now, we have 90% compliance."
Education, a public safety campaign, enforcement, and legislation are all part of the administration's plan.
The legislation has been top-of-mind recently, with the General Assembly session nearing its end in Annapolis.
The Lt. Governor testified for the cross-filed Road Worker Protection Act of 2024 in February. The bill, which increases fines for speed camera citations in work zones and allows the speed cameras to be unmanned, made it through the House of Delegates with some slight adjustments.
"Right now, Maryland has the lowest citation penalty related to speeding in work zones," says Miller. "$40."
The original draft of the bill brought that up to $290, but it was amended down slightly to $250.
The Senate version died in Committee, failing to get a vote in the Judicial Proceedings Committee before crossover day.
House Bill 513, which passed the House mainly along party lines (just one Republican, Delegate Todd Morgan, voting for it), must now make it through the Judicial Proceedings Committee if the bill is to make it to the Governor's desk.
The other initiatives include increased enforcement.
"We know that [when] we have law enforcement officer[s] actually at the site, it is a great deterrent for people from speeding," she tells WMAR-2 News.
"Some of the things we've already been working on is working with our Maryland State Police to have an increased presence within our work zones," adds State Highways Administrator Will Pines.
They also put more cameras in work zones and dropped the speed limits.
"Ultimately, that fatal crash was primarily driven by reckless and speeding, and if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't probably even be talking today," he says.
Also, to reduce aggressive and reckless driving before it happens, the work group recommended additional updates to the driver's manual and educational resources available online.
The group suggested creating a mascot for a work zone safety campaign that could be created in conjunction with the Maryland State Department of Education.
"Look, most drivers are very good drivers," Miller says to WMAR-2 News. "And they follow the law, they're not speeding. But then you have reckless drivers [who] are aggressive, impaired, or distracted. So we've got to put a public safety campaign to alert them."
She said when Governor Moore made her the chair of the workgroup, he told her that their number one priority was to protect Marylanders.