BARBOURSVILLE, WV (WOWK) – This week you’ll see more police officers cracking down on drivers breaking the law, especially in work zones.

The goal is to discourage speeding and avoidable accidents, which has been an ongoing problem for the Barboursville area.

“It’s a well-known fact that nobody does the speed limit in the construction zones,” Barboursville Police Department Patrolman Bobby Minnix says Wednesday during a ride-along.

Minnix goes on to say that “on several occasions, we’ve had tractor-trailer wrecks that shut down the interstate for 4 or plus more hours.”

Now, they’re cracking down on speeders. The work zone in Barboursville stretches five miles long from the 29th Street exit to the Huntington Mall exit with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation says, if you’re traveling above that speed limit, just be prepared to be pulled over.

Patrolman Minnix and his fellow officers along with WV State Police troopers targeted speeds on the interstate Wednesday.

Miniix says driving above the posted limit can not only increase the possibility of causing an accident, endangering their own life but also threatens the safety of those at the job site.

“It’s their lives that can be affected if you would accidentally wreck and injure one of them. The only way to prevent it is to try and slow people down,” Minnix says.

West Virginia had 800 crashes involving work zones last year which saw 8 people die and 276 injured. Officials tell us those cases were avoidable.

The WVDOT is urging drivers to avoid distractions and remain alert when passing through work zones.