MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association Executive Director Steve Baas says far too many lives are being changed forever by reckless driving through construction zones.

Baas wasn’t alone when he sat down with us — he brought someone whose story he says is among the most powerful he’s ever heard.

His name is Kyle Perkins, a construction worker who still walks with braces on both legs and leans on a cane. He’s undergone five surgeries since a truck hit him at sixty miles an hour while he was working in a construction zone.

It happened last June on a clear, sunny morning at Highway 164 and Capitol Drive. Perkins was training another worker on heavy equipment when everything went wrong. Emergency crews initially feared they might have to amputate his legs.

The injuries were devastating — nerve damage so severe that even simple movements are now a struggle. Perkins says it’s hard to drive or even walk, and every step reminds him of that day.

He remembers hearing the squeal of tires before the truck barreled into the work zone. The driver, 51-year-old Jade Moen, who hurt Kyle, his co-worker and initial driver who was rear ended, is now serving 25 years in prison for reckless homicide and reckless injury. Moen had no driver’s license, no insurance, and this was his 15th crash in recent years.

Perkins says his biggest worry after the crash was simple: “Will I ever have a job again?” His message to drivers is equally simple — and urgent: “Please, take your time.”

Baas says the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association is working hard to make sure stories like Kyle’s are never repeated. The group has put up billboards on Highway 41 between Appleton and Green Bay, showing a construction worker and his son with the message: “Slow down. That guy in the fluorescent vest is my dad.”

They’ve also created a free online course for young drivers at WorkZoneSafe.com — a program now used by tens of thousands of students across Wisconsin.

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