Motorists Inattention and Impatience Endangering PennDOT Workers
While no PennDOT employees have been injured on job sites this summer, District 10 officials said there are a lot of motorists who still do not pay attention in work zones. (KP File Photo)
by Jonathan Weaver
Several District 10 construction projects in Armstrong and the surrounding counties have and will take place this summer, and while the projects will make driving safer, PennDOT officials stress that they want to be safe, too.
Assistant Construction Engineer Terry Kerr asked for patience from local drivers when they see the orange construction signs.
“Most of our projects are larger projects – multi-phase projects – meaning that they don’t work in one area at the same time all the time. They’ll be jumping back-and-forth from lane to lane,” Kerr said. “That takes time – there’s going to be times the public drives through and they don’t see any work going on.
“They have to be attentive each day – just because they drive through one day and the traffic pattern looks a certain configuration, the next week or the next day, it may look totally different.”
He tries to relate to local residents by comparing it to a home building project, such as perhaps a kitchen project with many different contractors when homeowners might not have certain appliances for a period of time.
Kerr said sometimes it may take hours to cool a newly-paved roadway, especially in the summer months.
Project Manager Seth Marshall sees drivers try all sorts of things during Route 28 construction, but said accidents can still be avoided.
“It only takes at times one person to say ‘I’m going to be safe and slow down to the speed limit. And that’s the speed limit – you can go slower if need be,” Marshall said. “If one person goes fast, everybody else just follows. Do the right thing – slow down. It’s a big perspective change from driving through in your vehicle with somebody standing along the road at 45-55 miles per hour until you get out of your car and stand there as cars go by.
“The tractor-trailers that go through here, I don’t even venture a guess what speeds they’re going.”
Assistant Maintenance Manager Brent Piccola started his career as a flagman, and has lost hard hats and nearly gotten hit on job sites. He said crews have exchanged orange vests to green and yellow and that they are experimenting with more technology – including LED lights – to get drivers’ attention quicker.
“That’s the most critical job on our crew – it’s not the guy digging a piece of equipment, because without a flagger, (a driver) is going to hit people,” Piccola said. “That flagger has to get traffic stopped, direct them where to go through the work zone to the other flagger on the other end.
“Even in our training, t hey have to be the most responsible.”
Spokesperson Deborah Casadei said the top two causes for crashes in a work zone are speed and inattention, and said that trying to be a multi-task is an “irreversible decision that causes a consequence you can’t undo.”
“This is serious business for us – we want all of our people to be safe every day, and we’re trying everything we can think of to make that happen,” Casadei said. “There’s a safety component behind everything that we do.”
She said more law enforcement could eventually be the answer– such as is working in Maryland, where, according to State law, officers can distribute citations for driving at least 12 miles per hour above the speed limit and distribute fines.
Local News | jweaver July 27, 2015
By jorn jensen, July 27, 2015 @ 7:14 AM
It is the inattention that is the bigger problem - that will lead to impatience among drivers. Like the story states, if there are areas ‘coned off’ and no one working in that stretch, and the construction speed limit sign states 55, go 55 - don’t delay others. When you come upon workers, slow down to less than the speed limit and watch out for their safety - that is where attentiveness is really important.
Rt 28 is a prime example - miles and miles of construction right now with only a 10 mph cutback in speed limit and not much construction actually happening. This weekend, I saw a couple of young guys, in a BMW, pass a 45 mph car in the 55 mph construction zone, on the right, on the berm - good thing there was no piece of construction equipment sitting on that berm. They just caught up to the next group of cars going 55 mph and the rest of us were behind the 45 mph car.
Perhaps PennDOT shouldn’t ‘cone off’ more than they can handle - do shorter sections and get them completed in a more timely manner - that way, passing zones are available and inattentive drivers won’t create as much traffic congestion. Just a thought.