Close calls for highway workers, drivers
Highway work can be dangerous business — for crews and motorists. Especially when the drivers whizzing by aren’t watching the road.
Since spring, five crews on Missouri highways came within inches of getting struck by drivers who either were not paying attention, were speeding or impaired, according to the Missouri Department of Transportation. The workers were painting stripes. In a striping operation, as many as three trucks travel behind the paint truck with flashing lights that warn motorists to slow down and change lanes. In some cases, the motorists were injured.
* On Interstate 44 near St. Clair, a motorist swerved her car at the last minute to avoid a striping crew on March 26. She ended up rolling her car.
* At Interstate 270 near the Tesson Ferry exit, a motorist on March 30 struck one of the maintenance trucks. The truck had material on the rear bumper that absorbed the impact. The motorist receieved two tickets and totalled his car.
* In dowtown St. Louis, a semi-truck driver was passing a striping operation on Interstate 70 on May 12. He hit the yellow paint carriage on the striper and almost ripped it from the truck. Paint and reflective beads spilled all over the highway. The semi came inches from hitting one of the highway worker’s head. The driver of the semi fled the scene, but then hit another car at the next intersection. He was arrested.
* On Interstate 70 near Concordia, another semi struck the back of a truck that was part of a striping operation on May 18. The MoDOT truck rolled twice before coming to rest in the median, but its driver was not injured.
* On Interstate 29 near Mound City, two semi’s were driving side by side and approaching a striping crew on April 22. The driver of one of the trucks swerved at the last minute and clipped a maintenance worker driving a truck behind the striping crew. The MoDOT truck was totalled and the semi was in bad shape, too. No one was injured.
My father worked for the highway department when I was young. Hearing his “close call” stories make me very aware of crews and overly cautious. I am alway cognizant that someone might need to swerve over last second because they are not paying attention and leave plenty of room.
MoDOT is very good about giving warning. But, local crews are not as good. Sometimes it isn’t road crews but utility workers. Last week I almost got hit twice because a utility crew was blocking a lane on westbound Midland with nary a warning sign of upcoming closed lane.
Suzy, you bring up a very good point that gets overlooked too often. Jurisdictional enforcement of signage and traffic control laws is very very lax. As another example, a company doing work for Ameren UE’s skywalk over Truman Boulevard NEVER gave proper warning, erected signs, etc when they would block a lane so they could work on the walk. You just come around a corner and SURPRISE!, a bunch of orange cones. These contractors and companies need to be made to give fair and proper warning to the traveling public.
Having worked on highway projects I can attest to the number of people who don’t pay attention (not to mention the number of illegals/immigrants that don’t read English and therefore end up driving right through work areas). It can be scary out there…