How to save a life in 22 seconds

The Star Tribune shot this video today at the scene of an accident on I-35W in Burnsville, in which a car struck construction workers, killing one of them. (Update 4:47 p.m. The second construction worker has also died.)

A white sheet beneath a blue tarp should be the image we all have in our heads when we drive past construction zones.

We don’t know, of course, what caused the accident. But we do know that few of us actually slow to 40 or 45 mph as requested in construction zones. We have places to go and things to do, and cars to get off our tails if we do slow down.

We’ve gotten a few e-mails today literally begging us to remind all of us to slow down.

Most construction zones in Minnesota are under a mile long, many are a fraction of that. Slowing from 65 to 40 for one mile will get you where you’re going 22 seconds later. That’s about half the time it took to read this far down in this post.

At the end of the day, highway construction workers would like to get home, too.