In light of conditions, looming work on highways make traffic laws a priority

Could it be we are going from one bad situation into a worse one.
In all this talk about bad roads we missed our turn to curse the roadwork ahead.
With the passage of October’s Roads to Prosperity bond amendment it’s inevitable that we’ll soon be seeing more road construction than ever.
And if our guess is right those orange signs, pylons and highway workers will be in a lot of work zones for years to come.
Of course, anything would be an improvement on what we have now, but this is a good time to remind ourselves: It will be worth it down the road.
However, something else we need to remind ourselves of is to obey speed limits in work zones, merge signals and other warning signs.
This is not just a matter of ensuring your life and your passengers, but the men and women doing all this road work.
Recently, we read of one 20-mile work zone on Interstate 64 — between Charleston and Huntington — where three fatalities and 25 wrecks happened in a two-week period.
That’s way too many for any section of road, but especially one where the speed limit is supposedly 55 mph because of work on the highway.
In response, law enforcement and the Division of Highways made a concerted effort to make this stretch of road safer.
Altogether, in less than two weeks following that spate of mayhem on I-64 law enforcement agencies issued nearly 1,000 citations, not warnings.
We suspect that those citations, at a minimum, cost drivers at least $200 each.
The 55-mph limit in this work zone is also being enforced day and night, regardless of whether work crews are working.
We realize that traffic violations typically rank pretty low on the pecking order of most law enforcement agencies.
However, in light of how dangerous our roads already are and the roadwork that’s looming, now is the time to strictly enforce them. If that means adding more officers to patrol particular areas, including work zones, so be it.
Though complaints about potholes are more common, most would admit that reckless drivers are a close second. Especially, those who speed well more than 10 miles above the limit. Not to mention others, who tailgate or jump the line by not merging in due time and then crowding into traffic.
We should not even need a reason why to be mindful about driving safely, but we have many.
The best one, if we don’t might not just cost us some money, but our lives or those of others.