On April 22, 2025, Circulate's CEO and General Counsel Colin Parent provided remarks at the Highway Worker Memorial for Caltrans District 11.
Since 1921, 194 Caltrans employees have been killed on the job. One of the biggest hazards faced by highway workers are inattentive and distracted motorists.
The Fallen Workers' Memorial is a time to remember those who lost their lives building, maintaining, and operating California’s world-class transportation system. This observance also highlights safety awareness for employees in work zones, as well as the motoring public.
Parent’s remarks are provided below.
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Thank you for inviting me here this morning. My name is Colin Parent. I am the CEO and General Counsel of a nonprofit organization called Circulate San Diego. And I am a former La Mesa City Councilmember.
I am honored to be here with you to honor the California Highway Workers who have lost their lives in public service.
At Circulate San Diego, we lead a campaign in San Diego for Vision Zero, which is the goal of ending all traffic fatalities and serious injuries.
In a past life, I was a state worker myself. I was appointed by Governor Brown in 2011 to work at the California Department of Housing and Community Development. During that time, I got to work with a number of Caltrans leaders, especially around the intersection of housing and transportation policy.
And I’ve met dozens of Caltrans engineers and maintenance workers throughout my career. During my last campaign, I actually met a few going door to door.
I’m glad we have Chief Coronado here from the CHP too. The Highway Patrol also put their lives on the line every day. And they have the highest mortality rate. That’s because they also work in a very dangerous place, our highways.
Highways really are a uniquely dangerous part of modern life. Traffic crashes are one of the leading causes for death in the United states. Over 40,000 people die in car crashes each year.
But it is the state workers who are in a unique form of danger on our highways. It is the state workers, alone, who are essentially pedestrians on the highways. State workers are the only people on the highways outside of a car, and not protected by several tons of metal.
It is an honor to be here with you all, to recognize the service and sacrifice of our Highway Workers. Maintaining our transportation infrastructure, and enforcing our traffic laws are essential services. I am grateful for the men and women who put their lives at risk helping keep things moving for California. And I mourn with the friends and family who have lost loved ones doing this work.
Yes, today we are here to honor those who we have lost. But that is not the only reason we are here. We are also here to prevent the future loss of life.
I mentioned earlier that Circulate San Diego leads a campaign for Vision Zero, which is the goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. We launched our local campaign here in 2015. Caltrans and the Federal Department of Transportation have similar goals as well.
At the core of Vision Zero is the idea that injuries and deaths are preventable. We like to use the phrase “Crash not Accident.” What happens on our streets and highways are the products of human decisions. Those are never accidents.
Our roads are designed with safety in mind, or they are not, because of choices people make. Whether someone is speeding to get to an appointment, or paying attention to the road – that is a choice.
The loss of life to traffic crashes can be impacted by the public policy choices made by public servants, and the choices we make as individual motorists.
Caltrans itself has an important safety awareness campaign asking motorists to be careful when they are driving by workers on our roadways. You’ve probably seen them. Or maybe someone here designed them?!
At Circulate, we do a variety of similar efforts to raise awareness about these issues. We publish reports, we stage press conferences, and we try to get our message out there.
Today is a memorial, which is an appropriately solemn affair. But it is also important and valuable that the press was invited today. I appreciate the members of the press who have joined us here today.
The best thing we can do to honor those who have been killed on our streets and highways is to prevent others from suffering in the same way.
Media coverage of events like these helps raise awareness among the general public. That’s important. There is value in encouraging motorists to recognize that they are operating a vehicle with the potential to kill, and that their choices matter.
And it matters what we all do as individuals.
Most of us drove to get here today. Let’s have a show of hands who drove here today?
I suspect a few of us also were running late, and sped to get here. (Don’t worry, I won’t ask for a show of hands.)
This just means that we all have an opportunity to make the safe choices in our own lives.
And of course, the men and women at Caltrans are not only motorists, but they are the designers and maintainers of our transportation infrastructure itself. You all have a unique opportunity to make choices that affect thousands, and even millions of people. Your choices matter. They can save lives.
Today we honor those who have died serving the public. Let us further honor them by making choices in our own lives, to prevent more tragedies.
As individuals, let us keep in mind the feelings we have here today, and reflect them in actions as motorists, advocates, and as public servants.
