OLYMPIA — State Transportation employees and others took time this week to remember fellow highway workers who died on the job.

Among those honored was Forks resident Robert Lee “Moose”‘ Morgan, who died of a heart attack last August at the age of 55 while maintaining U.S. Highway 101 near Lake Crescent.

In a somber ceremony at Department of Transportation headquarters on Wednesday, dozens of workers and relatives of the deceased listened quietly as a bell tolled the losses — 56 who have died of injuries since 1950 and two, including Morgan, who passed away at work in the past year due to medical problems.

The event coincided with “National Work Zone Awareness Week.”

Safety improvements, higher penalties for speeding in work zones and better enforcement have reduced the death toll for highway workers in recent years.