Gov. Mike Rounds has proclaimed the week of April 7-11 as "Work Zone Awareness Week" in South Dakota, a week set aside to remind drivers to "Slow for the Cone Zon," and to proceed with caution in and near road construction and maintenance work.

Over the next few months, construction zones will be scattered throughout the state. Darin Bergquist, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, said that the start of the construction season also signals the need for drivers to use extra caution because the number of highway work zones will grow rapidly with the onset of warmer weather.

Bergquist said that in the past five years, 16 people have died in work-zone crashes in South Dakota, and another 731 were injured. Nationally, more than 1,000 people are killed in work zones each year. More than 80 percent of those are drivers and passengers.