Screeching halts happen all too often in work zones

 My name is Chris Collins and I’m the District Maintenance Superintendent in Hutchinson. I started with KDOT in June of 1994. Most of my experience with work zones has been in mobile work zones on the District Five Striping Crew.

Chris Collins

During my career here at KDOT, our work zones have dramatically changed for the better over the years.  The addition of message boards and truck mounted attenuators on our shadow vehicles has made great improvements to our mobile operations. The general public can see us better and understand what we are doing on the highway. 

Striping mobile operations travel around 8 mph and can surprise drivers, especially ones who are pre-occupied or distracted. Over the years, I have seen the start of the texting while driving era. In my opinion, this has caused much more distracted driving than in the past. This can cause more dangerous situations to highway workers in work zones.  

One of my experiences with a driver who most was likely distracted by a phone was while I was on the District Striping Crew, I think it was 2005. The crew was striping U.S. 281 southbound, about 5 miles north of Pratt. The typical mobile work zone we were running involved the striper leading with two shadow vehicles with attenuators following. 

It was late in the day, and I had pulled over in my pickup onto the shoulder to check our glass bead coverage.  (Glass beads provide retroreflectivity in the highway paint so it ca be seen at night when vehicle headlights hit it.) The rear shadow vehicle was approximately 1/8-mile in front of me. A large truck passed me at highway speeds headed toward the mobile work zone. I got out to check the bead coverage and looked toward our rear shadow vehicle and thought, this guy is not slowing down. 

The truck ended up striking the attenuator square in the middle, no brake lights or defensive steering. I jumped into my truck, drove to the scene and went to check on the driver. He was fine, just a few cuts. I checked on my driver, and he was fine as well.  I reported the accident to law enforcement and had the crew start flagging. 

The individual asked me why we were going so slow and that we should not be able to do that on the highway. I explained why and kept the rest of my thoughts to myself. He said he needed his cellphone, and I helped him look. He then told me it was in his hand right before the accident. As I said earlier, in my opinion, this accident was probably due to the cellphone. This is just one example of not paying attention to your surroundings. 

I have seen drivers drive through wet traffic paint and come to screeching halts behind our shadow vehicles. I’ve also seen drivers pass our work vehicles in no passing zones, which pushes oncoming traffic to the far shoulder. 

I think all this could be avoided if you as a driver would pay attention, read work zone signs and be aware of your surroundings. Overall, using caution any time you see flashing lights or work zone signs will make it safer for you, the workers and other drivers.