Dive Summary:

• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has signed a law that will double fines for traffic offenses occurring around sanitation workers.
• The bill was put in motion by Mark Friend, a sanitation employee who spent two months in the hospital after a car hit him while he was working.
• This law ensures that waste haulers have the same deterrents in place as highway and maintenance workers, with driver licenses being revoked or fines doubling for incidents involving sanitation employees.

From the article:

Friend advocated for the law change last summer, before his accident. And he continued the push during his recovery after the January accident.

He [Friend] was in a coma for two weeks, spent two months in the hospital and has had 29 surgeries to date with at least one more expected.

Wisconsin joins a growing list of states, which also includes Michigan and Ohio, that are passing similar laws designed to protect garbage haulers.