The Government of Saskatchewan is reminding motorists to slow down to 60 km/h on highways when passing orange zones with flashing lights.

“We really try and stress that it’s unfortunate that we have such a short construction season, but that’s the world we live in right here,” said Minister of Highways David Marit. “I would hope that everybody would really respect the 60 kilometres.”

He expressed that having a little patience on highways undergoing construction doesn’t affect the overall trip time by much time at all.

“Just add a little bit of time to your travel,” he suggested. “It’s not for your whole trip, it’s just for part of it. So I always ask the public to respect the orange zone and the 60-kilometre limit.”

“It doesn’t add an hour to your time, it might add five or ten minutes,” he said. “In some cases, if you have to wait for a flag vehicle, it can take a little longer. I’ve gone through them, but I just ask the driving public to please be safe and respect the construction zone because we really are limited on our construction season and what we can do in that time frame.”

The cost of not slowing down is never worth it, he noted, as the highway workers also have families to get home to at the end of their day.

“We don’t need any more fatalities like we’ve had,” said Marit. “We’ve had a few, obviously, a few years ago on the number 39 highway, and we definitely don’t want that anymore.”

He reminds drivers that fines triple for speeding through construction zones.

“If they’re not going to slow down, they’re going to pay,” he said. “I strongly believe that the Slow to 60 is there for good reason. It’s to save lives and be safe.”