JAWS innovations goes international

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When Marcus Slaughter and MoDOT’s General Services team created the JAWS innovation in 2018, they were well aware of what kind of impact it could have on the safety of their fellow co-workers. What they may not have anticipated, however, is that a mere five years later other agencies would be following suit - including those in Mexico. 

JAWS, or Julie's Automated Waste Removal System, is an innovation created in honor of Julie Love. Love was a maintenance worker for MoDOT in 2004 when, tragically, she was struck by a motorist while attempting to remove debris from the roadway. JAWS is a truck equipped with a drop down skid plate allowing operators to safely and quickly remove debris in the roadway without getting out of their vehicle.

According to Incident Management Coordinator Marcus Slaughter, an Operator Communication Manager from the Mexican Exterior Circuit reached out to him curious about the device. 

"They reached out to me to express how much they liked the JAWS device. They relayed that they lose a high number of employees to death on the highway removing debris and wanted to purchase a device or get direction on how to construct one," explained Slaughter.

Since they're not local, Slaughter provided the plans and specifications of the device and also provided guidance on how they could engineer a similar device. 

Several states are looking to adopt the concept of JAWS including Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Louisiana, and California. Slaughter is encouraged that others will and likely already have installed similar devices on their equipment to help reduce the threat of injuries or death in the roadway.

"I am honored that an idea that I had was able to be put into production by our KC General Services group. Their collaboration and hard work made this a reality and now others both nationally and internationally have taken note and started to replicate this truly life saving device," Slaughter said.

 JAWS has received a number of awards including the People's Choice Award and second place in the productivity category at MoDOT's Innovations Showcase. Additionally, it’s gone onto win the 2018 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Transportation Achievement Safety Award.

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