Complacency Kills: Hazards of Construction

Road construction is everywhere, there is no denying that. As a full time student at the University of Phoenix, I have the opportunity to continue working in my field while I earn my degree. My current career path includes installing underground utilities on road right-of-way. There are instances where the customer requires lane closures and flaggers. Several drivers either do not possess the knowledge of slow down in a construction zone, or frankly just does not care.

Working on a main road in a smaller town in California, we were installing a duct package from on substation to another substation roughly four miles apart. It was a grueling process of saw cutting our path on the road, milling down the asphalt (so our road plates would be flush), removing the asphalt, digging down to customer specifications, using shore boxes, installing duct package, concrete the duct package up to asphalt, and reapplying asphalt. This required half of a two-lane road to be shut down during hours of operation. Our company subcontracted a traffic control company to ensure our safety and the flow of traffic to continue going with minor interruptions. For three months we had zero accidents, not even so much as a sliver in a hand.

Things were going smooth that entire day, it was business as usual. We were moving road plates, assembling shore boxes, and staging pipe. The flaggers were coordinating with us by shutting down both lanes so some larger materials could be transported safely. Rocco and Felix were the flaggers I was working with, Felix was where I was coming from, Rocco was where I was going. Rocco had traffic stopped for me to take up the entire road with my shore box. When I re-entered my delineated work zone, Rocco allowed traffic to flow again for quite some time before my partner came behind me with his necessary materials. When he was ready to approach the work zone and needed traffic to stop, Felix radioed down to Rocco to stop traffic. There was a substantial gap between lines of cars at that moment when Rocco deemed it safe to turn is stop/slow sign to halt traffic. He walked in the middle of the lane with his stop sign and full Hi-Visibility suit and bright flashing sign to ensure the vehicles indeed did stop. When he turned to admire the progress of my partner down the road, a gold colored, early 2000’s Ford Ranger slammed into Rocco. He flew about ten feet in the air before slamming into the asphalt, his hard hat had rolled down the road, and his sign was on the hood of the truck. I hopped off my backhoe and bolted to Rocco to assess the situation, and had another coworker activate emergency medical service. Rocco was conscious and responsive, the driver of the truck got out of his vehicle and proceeded to continuously say, in a thick Mexican accent, “I didn’t see his sign flipped!”.

After the emergency team arrived and work continued, I saw an officer talk with the driver of the truck and his family, who arrived after the accident. The officer suggested that one of the other family members drive the truck home for reasons I can only speculate on. My guess is the man did not have a license, or even proof of residency for that matter, and didn’t know the protocol and or laws in regards to construction zones. I am not a cop or a lawyer that understands law, but in my opinion that man should have been booked for striking a construction worker in a construction zone at the bare minimum. I would say that is none of my business, but it is. Working on that road every day I would see the same golden truck on the road, just wondering if and who he was going to hurt next with his negligence of awareness in a work zone.

This entire situation could have been avoided if there were classes for certain circumstances like this. People think that driving is just keeping the vehicle between the lines and getting to your destination. As a commercial driver’s license holder, I know the risks and hazards that are on the road each time I enter the roadway. We as people are always looking for the easiest and quickest way to our destination but sometimes have a tendency of getting complacent. We need to pay more attention to our surroundings and do our responsibilities as drivers that not only we make it home safely, but workers like Rocco make it back home to his wife and three kids each and every night.