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Steve Hudson

Thinking About Work Zone Safety
April 7, 2008

A few days ago we made a little road trip to see Eldest Son in one of his concerts. A sophomore in college, he’s a clarinet performance major – and fortunately he’s close enough that we can often make it to his performances.

We like to leave early, since the route between here and there takes us through a number of construction zones. We are also careful to watch the speed limits within the construction zones.

But every time we go, we find that many other drivers seem to ignore those limits (and good sense) altogether. Some even seem to view work zones as challenges – as in “How near dare I come to the construction crews?” or “How close can I tailgate?” or “How fast can one go and still not hit a cone or barrel?”

I’m told that some truckers even make a game of “kissing the barrels,” edging closer and closer to see if they can play tag with the traffic control system, maybe sending one flying in the process.

I guess it doesn’t take much to entertain some folks.

Unfortunately, the result is often what safety officers describe as an “incident.”

Sure enough, on that very trip, we saw where someone had lost control in a work zone and one of those incidents had resulted. The miles-long back-up was, fortunately for us, on the other side of the interstate. But as we drove through our portion of the work zone, passing working paving crews every few minutes (staying within the posted work-zone speed limit, much to the dismay of a very impatient SUV riding our bumper and flashing his lights every few seconds) two thoughts occurred to me.

The first was more in the form of a fervent hope – something along the lines of “I hope that jerk behind us doesn’t cause an accident,” followed quickly by “Where’s the state patrol when you need ‘em?”

The second was in the form of a question, and it had to do with whether anyone (worker or traveler) had been injured or killed in that incident on the other side of the concrete barrier, now several miles behind us.

This construction season will most likely be like all the rest. Statistics tell us that, yes, there will be more injuries and fatalities in construction work zones.

There shouldn’t be, but there will.

What are you doing to make sure that they don’t involve your jobsites and your workers?

Let me know.

Posted by Steve Hudson on April 7, 2008 | Comments (0)