You're minutes from home after an hour of fighting heavy rain on the road. Through the wet windshield you see a bright yellow barricade blocking your path. The pavement on the other side of the barricade appears covered by only inches of water.

Should you chance it and drive around the barricade?

No. Find a safer route. Your life may depend on it.

Texans die every year from driving around barricades during flash floods, which are common in Central Texas. Of 17 storm-related drownings in Texas in 2004, 15 were the result of driving into deep water. From 1993 to 2004, there were 177 flood-related deaths in Texas, 123 of them (74 percent) occurred when vehicles were driven into water.

Roy Sedwick, LCRA's floodplain coordinator, said the goal is to place bumper stickers on public service vehicles throughout the lower Colorado River basin.

As part of "Turn Around, Don't Drown," a national campaign to prevent flood-related drowning, LCRA's floodplain coordinator, Roy Sedwick, wants you to think twice before you drive around that barricade into the dangerous uncertainty of rushing water. "Turn Around, Don't Drown," sponsored by the National Weather Service, sends the message that people should not drive around barriers set up during floods or risk driving through crossings covered with water, even if the water appears shallow.

Sedwick, who is also coordinator and executive director of the Texas Floodplain Management Association, recently started using specially designed barriers and bumper stickers to spread the warning.

Video of drowning safety campaign.

The National Weather Service's Turn Around, Don't Drown page includes links to success stories.

LCRA page on flood management.

Sedwick helped a Bastrop Eagle Scout build several low-water crossing barricades in memory of those who have died in Central Texas flash floods. Sedwick is also distributing nearly 10,000 bumper stickers, many of which will be showing up on LCRA service vehicles.

Roy Sedwick helped an Eagle Scout from Bastrop build the specially designed barriers.

"As we work with communities, the goal is to get (the bumper stickers) on city and county vehicles, school buses, police cars and building inspection vehicles throughout the lower Colorado River basin," Sedwick said. He also is preparing for schoolchildren a "Turn Around, Don't Drown" presentation that will present fun and catchy ways to remember and apply the message.

Groups or individuals interested in working with LCRA to promote this message can contact Sedwick at (512) 473-3200, Ext. 2805, or roy.sedwick@lcra.org.

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