Motorcycle safety has increased, but so have the dangers

 By Mike Bright

Becky and Mike Bright

It is hard to believe it has been eight years since I wrote my first post on motorcycle safety. In many ways riding has become safer, and in some ways, it has become more dangerous. It is safer today because of technological advances on the motorcycle. Today’s modern bike is generally equipped with antilock brakes, traction control and most have robust LED lighting. But it is more hazardous in other regards.

Eight years ago, the automobile driver with a cell phone in hand was statistically as dangerous as an impaired driver. That has not changed. But as more technology makes its way into the cabin of the car, the distractions grow! How many people have, what amounts to a tablet, imbedded in the dash of their vehicle? And yes, the cell phone still reigns supreme. I have personally pulled alongside a car on the freeway, at 70 mph and watched them drive with a knee while looking down at their device.

On two-lane roads, I have followed vehicles that veer back and forth across the roadway. I’m fearful to pass as I don’t know exactly what they will do. For these reasons I have become an advocate of centerline rumble strips.

In my last blog, I wrote about a frightening experience my wife and I had on a rainy night in Kansas City. I wish I could say it was the last one, but it was not. However, we remain vigilant riders and keep alert for errant vehicles. We have taken steps to make ourselves more visible. We continue to wear apparel with reflective markings. Our bikes are equipped with reflective material on the back and sides. We also continue to ride defensively. I want to encourage my fellow riders to do the same.

I want to encourage my fellow riders to consider your side approaches. Modern motorcycles have good lights to the front and reasonable taillights. However, most motorcycles have no side lighting. A vehicle approaching you from the side, at night, really cannot see you until perhaps it’s too late. We have added reflective material to the sides of our bikes as well as our helmets.

Do you wear a helmet? This is an issue that I have grown into. Many years ago, I was the first to say, “I don’t need your silly helmet!” Today, I have attended enough funerals. I have also had mishaps that, had I not been wearing a helmet, my head would have been laid open. You may not want to spend $500 or $600 on a helmet, but your brain, your life, is worth at least $100 to $200. You can buy a good helmet for that price.

The fact is, you may be an excellent rider, but that will not matter when you have a close encounter with an errant motorist.

Be safe and enjoy the ride!

 Mike Bright works for KDOT in Chanute

Read Mike’s previous blog here

 

 

Lives were saved - because of seat belts

 By Leslie Fisher

 It’s every mother’s worst nightmare. On Feb. 11 of this year, in the afternoon, I got a couple of phone calls from an unknown number in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When I got the first call, I declined (thinking it was spam), then they called right back again. So, I did pick up the second time.

 It was my oldest son, Joshua, calling me from a hospital in Tulsa. My son was driving his semi down to Texas to begin his own trucking business and got involved in a terrible accident about an hour past Tulsa. He was traveling down with his girlfriend, her five-year-old daughter and their dog.

 They had stopped at a rest stop to wait out the storm during the night and then switched over to a different highway that was supposed to be clear, according to his GPS. They had just gone through a small town and hit a stretch of highway that was solid black ice.

 He started to slide sideways and across the center median and was t-boned on the passenger side by an oncoming semi. He and his girlfriend were wearing their seat belts, or they would not be alive today.

 My son received lacerations, severe bruising all over, a sprained knee and ankle and eventually passed some gall stones due to the impact. His girlfriend received multiple bruises, laceration, a lacerated tendon between two fingers in her right hand and a severe compound fractures of her lower right shin, both requiring multiple surgeries. Her daughter and dog were secure in the sleeping bunk and had a few scratches but were otherwise physically unharmed. The truck was totaled and ended up at the salvage yard in about four to five different piles.

 So, our message to anyone is - always wear your seat belt no matter what you are driving - they will save your life. For the second time in less than five years, seat belts have saved the lives of my mother’s grandsons. A blog about my nephew, Max, was written by his step-father and published in this blog series in 2017 – click on the link here.

 

Leslie Fisher is an Applications Developer at KDOT in Topeka

For crash victims’ families, the moment of truth about the worst

Part of a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper’s job is notifying next of kin when a person dies in a car crash. One trooper remembers a mother collapse in a doorway. Another caught a mother crumpling to the floor.

Why share troopers’ accounts of notifying families the worst has happened? This four-part series as part of the Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day safety blog is to emphasize the importance of traffic safety. Troopers see the consequences. They experience the painful fallout.

The is the first story in the four-part series involving KHP death notifications.

Please CLICK HERE to watch Trooper Gardner's video and read the story below.

 

A tragic Easter morning

Technical Trooper Ben Gardner

Technical Trooper Ben Gardner was sleeping when the call from dispatch woke him around 3:30 a.m. Easter morning.

Two pickups had collided on U.S. 56. An investigation would show that a larger pickup crossed the center line and struck a smaller pickup, killing the smaller vehicle’s driver – on his way from his late-night job to his wife and children.

Gardner could see marks showing where the fatally injured driver tried to steer away from the oncoming truck.

By sunrise, the trooper stood at the front of door of a woman who didn’t yet know she lost her husband. Small children gathered around the woman. They all looked confused. They expected to see their husband, their father, not a trooper in uniform.

After confirming that she was the victim’s wife, he told her what he had to in clear and concise words.

 “I say what I was always say: ‘It is my sad responsibility to tell you that your husband has been killed in a crash today. He is dead.’ And then I pause.”

In Gardner’s mind, that situation – “the most difficult moment in their life” – requires him “to be the best shepherd.”

“At that point, it’s about being a human being.” And as he continued to recount his sad obligation on that front porch, Gardner began to choke up. He paused. “I’m the person who will cry with the person,” he said.

What he remembers, after telling her, was her silence and her small children wandering away.

Sometimes in those situations, he said, “My words have struck them so hard that they fall to the ground.”

Others, like the woman, react with silence. Others, with anger.

That morning, the woman stood silent for a long time, Gardner remembers.

The man whose truck struck and killed her husband had been driving intoxicated and would spend almost 5 years in prison for it.

Years have passed since Gardner stood on that porch.

“But,” he said, “it’s still something I still think of.”

Annual Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day blog series to begin

Some stories share triumph about a life saved. Some stories tell about the tragedy of a life being taken. All stories illustrate why safety is so important on our roadways.

KDOT and other transportation organizations are participating in Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day, a nationwide safety campaign. As part of those efforts, KDOT is hosting an annual traffic safety blog series where people share personal stories about significant moments in their lives, and some moments changed their lives forever. 

As part of this series that begins tomorrow, four Kansas Highway Patrol troopers relate the painful experience of notifying next of kin after a fatality crash. It’s something they never forget.

The purpose of these stories is to bring attention to the importance of practicing safe driving and to understand the real-life consequences when crashes occur. Together we can help put the brakes on fatalities.

When the pavement buckles: KDOT crews are ready

You often hear the safety phrase, “buckle up and drive safe.” But on a hot summer day, a different type of buckling may occur – pavement buckling - and it can cause safety and travel concerns for motorists.

According to KDOT Safety Director Troy Whitworth, the reason pavement buckles is heat expansion.

“It usually happens at a pavement joint,” Whitworth said. “So, the pavement pushes together at the joint so hard that it lifts and ultimately crumbles. There is simply not enough room for expansion of the pavement.”

Whitworth says he has seen pavement buckle a lot over the years and that it usually happens on concrete pavement. Whenever it happens, KDOT crews respond quickly to repair the highway.

In Late July, north central Kansas crews were called to 

repair a portion of I-70 that had buckled.

In north central Kansas, crews were on the scene to repair buckled pavement on I-70 in late July.

In Late July, north central Kansas crews were called to 

repair a portion of I-70 that had buckled.

Tim Hays, Highway Maintenance Supervisor in Ellsworth, said that it is common with this summer’s heat and moisture for the road to buckle. Water gets under the concrete and then when it heats up, the concrete expands and buckles.

“After getting a phone call that the roadway has buckled, we go out to look at it and see what needs to be done to fix it,” Hays said. “Usually, we get a backhoe and a concrete saw to dig a hole out and fill it back in with asphalt to get the roadway opened back up as quickly as possible.”

If you come across a portion of the highway that’s buckled, call your local KDOT area office. The list can be found here: https://www.ksdot.org/burTrafficEng/KTC/Contacts/KDOTOffices.asp

A portion of I-70 patched after extreme temperatures caused the
concrete surface to buckle. 

Be prepared for the unexpected, wear a seat belt and drive safe.

Hands on learning: KDOT, Washburn University teach teens about STEM opportunities

Topeka-area middle schoolers attended KDOT’s STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Camp at Washburn University last month, thanks to the efforts of the Office of Civil Rights Compliance. The University hosted two weeklong residential camps in July with 14 students participating each week.

The camps gave students opportunities to learn more about science in transportation through interactive projects, activities and fieldtrips. Campers filled their days building and racing solar cars, designing bubble wands in CAD for 3D printing, programming and coding robots; as well as building and launching their own drones and rockets. 

Students also explored a few KDOT careers. Popsicle stick bridges were built and tested for strength with staff from Structures and Geotechnical Services; hands got dirty when students formed small concrete structures during a Materials & Research Lab tour; and mini excavators and skid steers were test driven at Washburn Tech’s campus. Deputy Secretary Lindsey Douglas and State Transportation Engineer Burt Morey spoke to the campers at the weeks’ closing Showcase exhibition.

 “As much I hope this sparked their interest in the transportation field, a new and non-traditional field for so many, I am more excited about the opportunities the camp presented, the exposure students received to something new and different, and the impact it made on their lives- both seen and unseen,” said Doria Watson, Civil Rights Compliance Administrator.

This was the fourth STEM Camp in five years KDOT has sponsored. COVID-19 forced the cancellation of 2020’s camp, and it brought new rules and guidelines to staff and participants to follow for this year’s event.

Civil Rights Compliance administers the STEM Camp through funds from FHWA’s National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) Program to help promote career and educational opportunities to disadvantaged and at-risk middle and high school students.

Washburn University created a YouTube video with additional photos. You can view them here:  and here.

 

 

Hot job summer: The asphalt pavement process

 

By Tim Potter, 
District Five Public Affairs Manager 

Imagine this: You’re under a blinding sun along U.S. 50 near the town of Walton, and the combined heat and humidity makes it feel like around 106 degrees. It’s suffocatingly hot, the kind of conditions that trigger a heat advisory.

Not just that: You’re laying down asphalt cooking at around 250 degrees when you first apply it. The stiff south wind feels like more of a blast furnace than a cooling breeze. You’ve worked through lunch because overlaying a side road at a highway is one of those jobs where it’s not real practical to take a normal 30-minute break. The equipment has been strategically positioned, and the different tasks involved must click right along. The asphalt -- and the process for applying, shaping and finishing it -- is demanding, unforgiving.

That is what it was like for a combined team of crew members – from the Newton Subarea, District Special Crew and El Dorado Area and El Dorado Subarea -- the afternoon of July 28. If you had to visit one of the hottest KDOT jobs on an extra sweltering day, this was it. They had been overlaying side roads for almost two weeks.

Sweat beads covered the reddened face of Bobby Jones that afternoon as he matter-of-factly explained the work being done and the reality of enduring merciless weather.

“The hotter it is, the nicer it lays,” Jones said of the asphalt. “You have to work it while the asphalt’s hot.” The Newton Subarea Supervisor watched a massive roller compact the new surface. Even though they had paving machines, some of the finishing and clean-up tasks must be done by hand, by bending over a shovel and pushing and lifting.

Through it all, “You have to drink lots of fluids; otherwise, you’ll be laid out on top of the asphalt,” Jones said. “If you don’t keep hydrating, this heat will take it right out of you in a heartbeat.”

Everyone had a different role in the overlay job, and part of it was paying attention to their co-workers – operators making sure they didn’t drive over someone, everyone staying aware of the semis barreling past only feet away, everyone making sure that the next person wasn’t overcome by the heat.

“This is a team effort,” Jones said. “We all have to watch out for each other.”