Never forget: Every day is a gift

Andréa Barnes at work (above) and at home (below).

 My name is Andréa Barnes, and I’m the Highway Maintenance Supervisor in Louisburg. I have worked for KDOT since 2001 and have had several close calls. Each one makes me realize how each day is a gift.

I love my job at KDOT and absolutely understand I am putting my life on the line to make improvements to the road. I don’t let my guard down and am continuously looking for an escape route. When I hear an air horn, I am getting out the way because in my world, that means we are about to get hit. In my opinion, the people who work on the roads are heroes, putting their lives on the line for the safety of others.

In March 2011, the Louisburg crew was patching potholes on U.S. 169.  I was in the lead truck with another co-worker. We had a pickup truck hooked to the patch trailer. It was a mobile work zone, so there was a dump truck with an attenuator right behind me and an arrow board about a quarter mile back from the attenuator truck.

I had just flipped my shovel over with cold patch when I heard the air horn. I looked at the operator in the attenuator truck to see which way I should run. He pointed to his left, which was in another lane of traffic.

I started to run when I heard my co-worker fall. I turned, grabbed his shoulders and pulled with all I had. After the full-size truck hit the attenuator, it spun the dump truck around on the passenger’s side. As I pulled my coworker, I saw the truck sliding sideways, missing his legs by only a foot.

The worker in the attenuator had terror in his eyes and said he couldn’t move.  I told him I would direct traffic around us until others arrived. I then saw the employee I dragged out of the way checking on the guy who hit our truck.

We talk frequently about how to warn the workers in front of the truck. In fact, I trained that attenuator truck driver. He was new, but he understood how important his job was. In my opinion, he did everything right and saved my life that day. He had the airbrakes set and turned the drive wheels toward the ditch. He was paying attention and pulled the air horn to alert us as soon as he realized he was going to be hit.

I remember him saying, “I thought I was going to watch you all die.” I told him because he honked the horn quickly, we had time to react and get away.

The guy who hit the truck was shaken up and said he was sorry. At the time, I didn’t want to hear that. I had a connection with these employees, and sorry just wasn’t enough.

On top of this, while directing traffic, a mini van parked on the shoulder. I told the guy he couldn’t stop there. But he screamed at me that his son was in the attenuator truck, and he needed to make sure he was OK.

So, I had him park at the top of the ramp, then helped his son get out of the attenuator truck. His father was in tears. He heard on the police scanner a KDOT truck was hit and knew his son was working there. Nothing was stopping him from checking on his son.  

We found out the driver was checking his Blackberry for emails; he looked up and there was nothing he could do. He hit us at 65 mph, and he never hit the brakes.

This incident affected him too. As I was pulling my co-worker out of the way, I remember seeing his face. He looked completely terrified. He later told people in Missouri at a rally to ban texting and driving that he remembered the look on our faces. He said he would not want to live with the fact if he had killed two highway workers.

It is now 15 years later, and I can still recall what people said, how it felt as the truck slid by us and the absolute fear I had inside of me. I went home that night and kissed and hugged my kids and told them, “You know I love you, right?”

I then fell apart while my partner just held me. We raised five wonderful kids and one of them is special needs, who didn’t understand why I was upset. But he knew I did everything in my power to come home each night to them. I was needed, loved and cared for by my family.

A headline might say, “Highway worker killed,” but it doesn’t include all the people in my life who love and need me. I survived that day, but others haven’t been so lucky. I am grateful things worked out, but highway workers shouldn’t have to pay with our lives. I will be forever changed by a choice someone else made.

While driving, and especially in work zones, remember that phone call, text message or email can wait. Pay attention; it is not worth killing someone. Our jobs are hard enough without having to live in constant fear.

I am now a supervisor myself, and my main goal is that all my employees go home safely every day. We are the hands that fill the potholes, the ones who repair the signs and plow the snow. Follow the signs and be alert. We shouldn’t have to pay for your bad choices.