By
Caleb Provo
I
was only eight months into my job at the Kansas Turnpike when my vehicle was
struck on July 9, 2019. In less than one year, I already have a moment I’ll
look back on and be grateful it didn’t end up a different way.
Last
summer, I was with our crew doing our annual paint striping at mile marker 8.8,
which is just north of the Oklahoma border. I was sitting in a dump truck with
an attenuator attached to it. This was blocking the passing lane of the roadway.
And a different vehicle was behind me informing traffic of the lane blockage.
Things
were proceeding as normal, when I saw it out of my side mirror. In a quick
instant, I see a semi that hadn’t moved over coming right at my tail end! There
was no way the driver could stop in time, and he tried
to—unsuccessfully—squeeze between me and the barrier wall to avoid a collision.
Ultimately,
the semi driver ended up crashing into the back end of my attenuator, and I
radioed to our teams that I had been hit. Then things got even crazier. A piece
of metal from the attenuator broke off and pierced my fuel tank, which in and
of itself is a dangerous situation.
However,
to make matters worse, the impact also caused the semi to catch fire. I’m glad
I was there in that moment and uninjured because I helped the driver, and his
wife who was with him, out of the on-fire semi. They wanted to try and save
their belongings, and I told them, “Stuff is replaceable, you aren’t.”
It’s
good they got out when they did. I tried using an extinguisher on the semi, but
within a matter of minutes, it was completely engulfed in flames. In less than
20 minutes, the entire thing was destroyed. You could barely recognize it.
Still
to this day, I don’t know exactly why they didn’t move over, but I’m so glad
this incident didn’t end up worse than what it was. Please, take a lesson from
this — pay attention, read signage and move over for roadway workers. Our lives
truly do depend on it.
Caleb Provo
is a Structures Worker for the Kansas Turnpike Authority in Wichita
