Behind the Wheel - Stay Out of the Cone Zone

[skidmark]

We are very fortunate here in British Columbia when it comes to workplace safety. In general, if our workplace is not safe, we feel entitled to apply pressure to our employers to make it so. If another person's workplace is not safe we wonder why someone is not doing something about it. Occupational health and safety programs are the norm rather than the exception.

If you ever have the chance to talk to a school crossing guard, flag person, highway maintenance worker or anyone else whose job requires them to work on our highways, ask them how safe they feel when they are on the job. If they don't have a story of their own about negative or dangerous driving behaviour they have definitely watched someone else at their work site bear the brunt of a poor driving decision.

A quick scan of ICBC collision numbers indicate that about 30 people are injured and one person is killed while working on our highways each year. One has to ask why this is so when every effort is made to post signs, erect cones and barricades, employ flag persons, use pilot vehicles, double the fines in construction zones and create advertising campaigns like Stay Out of the Cone Zone and Slow Down, My Mother Works Here.

I once calculated that it cost me 74 seconds to slow from 80 km/h to 50 km/h for the duration of one of the longer construction zones in my patrol area. Surely we can afford to grant this much consideration to our road workers even if we do feel that we don't have time for anyone but ourselves in our busy lives. These people have to go home to their families at the end of their shifts as well. Please help to make sure that they can do it.

Reference Links

[dirtsniffer]

cough ** pussy ** cough

[Grogador]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer
cough ** pussy ** cough

LoL what? Construction zones are one of the few places you really, really, REALLY shouldn't speed, I don't care how hardcore you and your 103hp Hujdai are. I used to work on the roads around town... drivers are impatient idiots, kinda wish I had more chances to drop crimpers on their hoods and throw wrenches at their windshields. Where (if?) do you work, so I can drive through your office at 80kph?

[luv2ride_bikes]

Originally posted by Grogador


LoL what? Construction zones are one of the few places you really, really, REALLY shouldn't speed, I don't care how hardcore you and your 103hp Hujdai are. I used to work on the roads around town... drivers are impatient idiots, kinda wish I had more chances to drop crimpers on their hoods and throw wrenches at their windshields. Where (if?) do you work, so I can drive through your office at 80kph?

This is what you should do to the next vehicle that speeds through the area you are working at. You can just say you where passing the wrench to one of your coworkers. I hate these morons that speed in construction zones.

[BlackArcher101]

I was a flagperson for 3 summers working the highways. If anyone has questions, fire away. I agree with this article 100%.

[scat19]

So a stick stuck in the ground coulda done your job?

[MKR89]

^ only if rotated from slow to stop occasionally.

[BlackArcher101]

Right... I was also the person that decided where to put signage, when to place it, and made sure it met provincial standards, while ensuring the safe travel of the public through the zone.

This "stick in the ground" made damn good money, had to dodge a few cars and semi's that went through the spot I was standing while trying to save the crews lives, and also had to endure a fellow co-workers death on a different site due to the same things I was dealing with.

Now, are you going to ask something or are you going to continue making stupid assumptions.

[luxor]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer
cough ** pussy ** cough

Ban this fool!