When you're a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation maintenance worker, your life is often on the line. It's an accepted part of the job to stand in the middle of the road facing down speeding traffic.

PennDOT has focused on improving safety for its workers, but officials say that distracted and aggressive drivers are worse than ever."Sometimes when you're setting up cones, they'll go by and blow your hard hat right off," PennDOT worker Tanner Seltzer, of Lehighton, said.There were 2,075 crashes within work zones in 2016, according to PennDOT.Since 1970, 87 PennDOT employees have been killed while on duty.PennDOT workers try to stay safe by following the procedures set by the department, and looking out for their brothers on the road.It's especially important when using loud equipment. During a recent patching job on the White Haven bridge of Interstate 80, workers had to operate a jackhammer with their back to traffic, relying on their co-workers to keep traffic away."You gotta watch each others' backs. The scariest part is seeing people drive by looking at their phones and not out the window," PennDOT worker Joe Hine of Lehighton said.It's hard to get a driver traveling 70-plus mph to slow down, especially if they're in a hurry. PennDOT follows regulations, known as Publication 213, to see exactly how to set up their work zones. The number of cones, signs and flag men all depend on the posted speed limit and the size of the work zone.Publicizing road work beforehand also helps. PennDOT will notify local media of upcoming road work, and members of the public can sign up for construction alerts through their website or the Pa 511 app.Even the large roadside digital signs can help in making drivers aware of upcoming road work and the potential for workers in the roadway."We try to keep the public informed, and at the same time try to protect our workers by trying to reduce the amount of traffic that goes through the work zone by people seeking alternate routes," Dennis McArdle, safety coordinator for PennDOT District 5 said.McArdle oversees PennDOT District 5 - six counties including Carbon and the Lehigh Valley. He says that the number of work zone intrusions - where a car unexpectedly enters a work zone - has increased considerably."Every year it continues to get worse, between the distracted and aggressive drivers," he said.If there's an unexpected vehicle in the work zone, the flagger has an air horn to let fellow workers know to take cover. If they can stop the car, they will. If not, they'll attempt to get a license plate number."A lot of times when an officer makes a stop, the individual will say 'I didn't know there was a work zone,' " McArdle said.Police also get proactive about work zone safety. Earlier this summer, the state troopers who patrol the turnpike in this area conducted "Operation Orange Squeeze," pulling over drivers for speeding and distracted driving, sometimes while driving turnpike vehicles. They cited more than 200 drivers.PennDOT officials regularly meet with other states and listening to workers about how to improve safety. Some of the recent improvements have been LED lighting and reflective clothing that covers more of the body than a simple vest.They take it seriously when one of their fellow road workers has been hit. Corey Reph, assistant manager for PennDOT's Carbon County Maintenance office, said it bothers him no matter if it's in this area, this state or even nationwide.McArdle said he thinks of the driver's safety as well as the workers'."Life safety comes first. Material things can be replaced, but a life, you can't," he said.They make it clear that safety is their number one priority, not only the safety of the workers, but for drivers as well."We're out here to do a job, to help the motoring public, to fix hazards for them. We just need a little cooperation from them to slow down," Reph said.