Mississippi Department of Transportation holds ceremony to honor workers lost on the job

On Tuesday, MDOT held a ceremony to honor those workers, with Executive Director Brad White acknowledging their service, as well as the sacrifice of their families.

"To the families here today, please know this: your loved one's work, what they did each day, kept Mississippi moving," White said. "They made our roads safer, they served people that they would never meet and they did it with dedication and pride."

The latest death was an employee from Itawamba County, who was seriously injured in, and ultimately died from complications due to an equipment accident. He passed away just last week. 

"We come together with heavy hearts to recognize losses that cannot be measured, and miles paved, or projects completed," said White. "Today, we will sadly add a new name to a list behind me that we wish did not exist, Mr. Johnny C. Adams." 

Adams was 66 years old when he passed. District One Engineer, Matt Dunn, remembered Adams as a reliable, kind and hard-working person, who always had a piece of candy on hand to pass out to other crewmembers. 

"To the drivers passing by, he was just another MDOT employee on the side of the road doing his job," Dunn said. "But we knew the man behind the yellow vest, the man who cared about his community, his church, his friends, and his coworkers."

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White also spoke to the crowd of MDOT employees at the ceremony, along with friends and family of those lost. 

"Our roads and bridges are better, they are safer, because of their life's work, because of you as MDOT employees, your life's work," White said. "We owe a debt of gratitude that certainly we can never repay."

The ceremony was personal for him, too: in 1997, Justin H. Edwards was killed while operating equipment by a railroad crossing. Edwards' family are Speaker White's neighbors.

"His death left a huge hole in their family's hearts and in our community that is felt to this day," White said. "I see his mom here; she posts every year on his birthday and it's like it's fresh and new: it's not '97, it's 2025, 2026, and every year."

"I say we honor your sacrifice, too, here today."

Deborah Kilsby, a retired nurse, lost her son, Tyler, in 2010 in Lumberton. He was just 25 when he passed and was her only child.

"This ceremony every year represents healing process: not that you'll ever get over losing your child or your loved one, but you see the other people that can relate," she said. 

She attends the ceremony every year — for the last few, making the drive from Cleveland, Texas — to remember her son with others who have lost their loved ones. 

One of those people is Emma Sims. Her brother, Leon, died in the same accident as Kilsby's son, Tyler. 

"He was always humble enough to stop what he was doing, to go help someone," said Sims, remembering Leon. "I really miss him."

The two men weren't scheduled to work on the day of the accident, but came to fill in for some other crewmembers. 

"This 82-year-old lady was speeding from Lumberton to Purvis, Mississippi," said Kilsby. "She passed the MDOT truck, went up the hill, turned around, and no one knows why she turned around."

"When she came back, she hit my son."

Both Leon and Tyler died from the accident. Kilsby said she was heartbroken, and wanted to do something — that road, she said, was narrow and had seen other accidents before. 

"As a distraught mother, I started with the supervisor of Lumberton, Mississippi and we were able to progress, and with the help of Phil Bryant, the governor at that time, they widened the road," Kilsby said. "So now when you're passing through, you see 'In memory of Tyler Kilsby and Leon Sims.'"

In the years since, their families have been there for each other. For Sims, having Kilsby there for support has helped in working through the grief. 

"She checks on us every chance she gets," said Sims. "We can heal in the process of going through, and here we are."

The ceremony was part of Work Zone Awareness week, with officials calling for safer driving.

The National Safety Council estimates that on average, 54 workers are killed annually in the U.S. due to work zone accidents, with drivers representing the majority of overall deaths. 

"The individuals who perform our work face real risk every single day that they go out," said MDOT Executive Director White. "They depend on one another, and they depend on the traveling public to slow down, to stay alert, and to respect the space where work is happening: too often, that simple responsibility is ignored by the motoring public."

"Today's a solemn reminder that safety in our work zones is not optional, it's not a suggestion, it's a shared responsibility." 

Some of the MDOT deaths were equipment-related and not the result of an incident involving a motorist.