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Greg Priest was a Knife River Corp. traffic control supervisor. He was killed by a drunk driver the night of July 2, 2012, as he prepared a lane closure ahead of his evening shift near Canby. He was 47.

Priest鈥檚 boss, Knife River Northwest Region President Brian Gray, remembers that night well: the phone call. The shocked crewmen arriving for work. Priest鈥檚 company truck parked just as he left it that morning. None of Priest鈥檚 crew had felt comfortable getting into the vehicle, so Gray drove it to the nearest Knife River facility, 45 minutes away.

He remembers that drive well, especially the sight of Priest鈥檚 6-year-old son, Mason, whose picture was wedged by the speedometer.

Priest 鈥渢ook that memory of Mason to work with him every day,鈥� Gray said. 鈥淗e did what he did safely every day so he could go home at night for his kids.鈥�

Oregon OSHA and Oregon Department of Transportation investigations cleared Knife River of any liability in the accident, Gray said.

How did this happen? Why did it happen? Gray said that Knife River at that time had a good philosophy on safety 鈥� that all injuries and accidents can be prevented. But the company did a lot of soul-searching, he added, and closed the project for seven days.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that there was anything that Greg could have done differently to avoid it,鈥� he said.

Less than a year later, Gray got another phone call, this time to inform him that traffic control supervisor KC Wilson was killed at a paving project site on Interstate 5 south of Roseburg.

The driver of a semitrailer had drifted from his lane and struck a Knife River truck and the small trailer and message board it was towing, sending the message board over the guardrail and onto Wilson鈥檚 head.

Wilson was wearing her hard hat and reflective vest, and working in a prescribed manner in a prescribed place, according to Gray.

鈥淚t was an accident that shouldn鈥檛 have happened,鈥� he said. 鈥淪he could have been standing one foot in any direction and that sign would have missed her. It would have been a close call, but in this case, it wasn鈥檛.鈥�

After enduring a similar loss so recently, the company was at least better prepared to deal with the aftermath.

Alarmingly, ODOT reports that between 2010 and 2014, an average of 477 construction zone crashes and around seven fatalities occurred annually, though the numbers fluctuate quite a bit.

ODOT spokesman Jared Castle said that with so many fatalities, people often overlook the construction workers who are injured. Between 2010 and 2014, each year an average of 13 鈥渟erious injury鈥� crashes occurred in construction work zones.

鈥淲ith construction workers, the type of crashes they鈥檙e involved in, they often can鈥檛 do the work they used to do,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople focus on the deaths, not on the guy whose hips are crushed between two cars.鈥�

ODOT has ramped up public outreach on safety this month, ahead of the summer construction season. Knife River has worked to develop 鈥渆ngineered solutions,鈥� like physical barriers, to protect workers from dangerous drivers. The firm also is diligent to ensure safety 鈥渋nside its gates,鈥� according to Gray. But employees鈥� safety often is in the public鈥檚 hands.

One of the most effective tools against unsafe driving is law enforcement, Gray said. People tend to respect the flashing red and blue lights of police more than the orange lights of construction vehicles, he said, adding that Knife River would support legislative efforts to increase law enforcement presence in work zones.

鈥淭he families (of Priest and Wilson) have told us, 鈥楢nything you can do to make the industry safer, do it.鈥� 鈥� he said.