September 2, 2025
By Lane Kimble
KAUKAUNA, Wis. — Bob Ritter–like any dad with young kids–seems larger than life to his family.
Now, Ritter’s sons can say the same of themselves.
Since late-July, two 14×48-foot billboards along I-41 near Appleton featuring a heartwarming image of Ritter and sons Jayden (6) and Elias (8 months) stand watch over tens of thousands of drivers.
The giant signs deliver a simple but crucial message: “That guy in the vest you’re about to pass is our dad. Slow down!”
WBAY-TV (Channel 2) anchor Chris Roth highlighted the billboards Thursday afternoon ahead of the busy holiday weekend.
“With 17 years on the job, it’s part of my life now,” Ritter, who is a Northeast Asphalt paving foreman, told WTBA. “We want everybody to go home at the end of the day. That’s who I am now. It took me a little bit, as I got older, to realize how important safety is to go home to your family.”
WTBA staff came up with the idea for the billboards this spring, asked around for a willing family to participate, and found the Ritters through the Walbec Group. WTBA then contracted with a company with open boards nearby the massive I-41 expansion project, which will be a hotspot for construction activity over the next five years.
WBAY’s Roth also interviewed WTBA Executive Director Steve Baas, who talked about the association’s additional safety efforts, including Work Zone Safe Wisconsin, investments in the latest state budget, and an ongoing partnership with WisDOT.
“What we’re trying to do with the billboard and the campaign we’re doing, we’re trying to kind of tap into empathy,” Baas said, noting 90% of work zone deaths are actually drivers and passengers. “But there is a self-interest aspect of this that we want to reinforce to drivers too that, look, the life you save may be your own.”
“I think it’ll make a difference. I certainly hope it does,” Ritter said of the billboard campaign. “There’s a lot of people out there who need to realize they need to put their phones down in construction zones and pay attention when they’re driving through them. All this needs to do is reach at least one of them.”
The billboards will stay up through mid-October. You can spot them on southbound I-41 just before the Highway J/Lawe St. interchange.
