Speeding in Work Zones

[BIGDIG]

Just venting here

4am saterday morning,this little girl (19)on drugs,drunk,and in posesion of marijuana and 2 stolen IDs,decided to plow through a construction site,missing at least 7 workers and a state trooper before SLAMMING 70mph(est, in a 35mph zone and a work zone to make it worse so it should be 15mph) into a barrier,bouncing off that into the tunnel wall,then piledriving two guys I've worked with for 5 years,a carpenter foreman and carpenter,into the other side of the tunnel wall. One worker has several broken ribs,a broken pelvis,two broken legs,one almost amputated,the other was not hurt as much but still broken bones... I was off shift when this happened,I found out by one of the TDR members that morning. Well Camara,you asked,thats what happened. She was drunk,drove through the closure,around barrels and into the Summner tunnel, a sound blanket was hanging across the tunnel so the workers had no idea what was coming until she tore through the sound blanket... It just ticks me off when people have no care about workers in the road,I've been at a few of these on my job,a drunk ass once drove down the closed street the wrong way rite at us,pulled the guys out of the hole just before the moron drove into it,lucky we had a crew at the other end to warn us by radio,it's just too bad the hole was only a few feet deep... so for all the morons out there that just don't care,remember we're out there building these roads for you to drive on. .

 

[QRTRHRS]

BIGDIG,



Sorry to hear this. I hope your friends/coworkers recover fully. I wish I had an answer to the problem. Perhaps the answer is to start confiscating cars for crimes like drunk driving or driving without insurance since fines don't deter much. Laws by themselves don't do much. PA passed a law whereby you must turn on your headlights in construction zones. Not sure of the reasoning there, the PA website does not elaborate. Anyway, even with signs telling people it is a law to turn on the lights, many don't do it.

 

[esommer2500]

Sorry to hear, and I wish the best for everyone involved, with the exception of the waste of sperm that caused the incident. Whenever I am riding with someone who doesn't slow for ANY kind of construction/utility work on or beside the road, I make a helluva racket. People that have never had the pleasure of doing this kind of work have no idea what it's like to have a car speed by you at about 70mph a foot or so away from you.



"Those who are in construction for any lenght of time, either never leave it, or come back to it in some form eventually. "



Hang in there, there are people who do appreciate your hard work.



Eric

 

[klenger]

Please pass on our wishes for fast recovery to your friends.

 

[Straight6Jeff]

BIGDIG, That really bites. With the amount of construction inside the 495 belt, people are even more numb than usual in the zones. What happened to the girl? probably nothing (injury wise). Hell, she probably doesn't even remember what happened. She needs to be hooked to a bumper and dragged at 70.



I have been honked at, flipped off, cut off, and many more things by other drivers while going through the zones at 15 or so MPH.

 

[ladyjaine]

Bigdig,



I hope your friends recover completely and quickly.



In Japan, if you drive drunk, your license tags have a red slash through them and everyone knows to keep an eye on you. If you stay out of trouble for quite a while, you get clean tags again. In Australia, anyone who gets a learner's permit must display a large 'L' on any car they drive for about a year.



How about if you were required to display on any car you drive, a large red 'D' if caught drunk behind the wheel? If you fail to display it and are caught for any infraction, you lose your license. If you have any infractions while displaying it, the cop takes your license on the spot. Make it a nationwide law, not statewide.





Jean

 

[TowPro]

in Germany, don't you loose your lisence forever for a DUI?

 

[BIGDIG]

Originally posted by Straight6Jeff

What happened to the girl? probably nothing (injury wise).

.

!!!! BINGO !!!!

The only thing that happened to her was she got arrested. . When the night shifter shows up I'll have her send me the photos of the aftermath... . Makes me sick to think these guys have families and almost didn't get home to see them... ... . I wish what happened at one of my jobs happened there. A car drove through two barriers,barely squeezing through,the moron even had to look out his window to make sure he would fit. then he floored it toward the other end of the closure,he was ******,didn't want to sit in the traffic,so instead he risked hitting and possibly killing guys in my crew. well at the other end was an excavation,and a very ****** off CAT 320 excavator operator. He saw the car coming,the workers had their backs to him. The operator swung around and SLAMMED his bucket through the front end of the guys car before making it to the workers:-laf . . and he had the balls to want to sue us saying our machine damaged his car ... . more stories to come. .

And thanks for all the get wells,Jeff,wish everyone drove like that in our zones... I'll keep you all posted on their recovery.

 

[Wheaties]

Hooray for the excavator driver!!! I love it!



I knew a guy, actually a pretty good guy, who lost control of a motorcycle at about 90 mph after getting good and drunk. He and his girlfriend had gotten into a fight at the bar, then both got on the motorcycle and headed for home. She died in the accident. He suffered some brain damage; it took him quite a while to get his speech back.



His license had been suspended for too many DUI/DWI's already. And he had been cited 5 more times for drinking and driving with a suspended license. He got three years in a rehab where he straightened himself out.



I don't know if I could live with what he lives with. I don't know what we, as a society, could have done to reign him in before the accident happened. They took away his drivers license, it didn't stop anything.



One comment he made when I went to visit him in the rehab has stayed with me. "You can tell the guys that have been sent here for a week, because they aren't serious, and they just want to get out of here. The guys that are here for the long haul want to make progress and get something done"



Matt

 

[d906670]

In the 80's when i was over there you lost it forever and did 5 yrs

 

[Camara]

I hope the guys recover OK. If more of the motoring public thought about what they were doing instead of putting on makeup, reading the newspaper,and let me tell you that some people really ought to stick their cell phones where the sun don't shine. I admit that I drive too fast most of the time. I tow my boat at 75mph. Maybe because I'm involved in the construction industry and was involved in "waste management" where people were always exposed to oncoming traffic I always slow down in work areas. When it comes to being out in the street things happen too fast. Remember that 55MPH = 80FPS. 55 mph ain't fast but if you put it into Feet Per Second it changes peoples thinking. More on this later. I have to go to Boy Scouts, my youngest is about 10 hours and a couple of meetings from becoming an Eagle Scout. I don't want to screw that up for him.

 

[Truckie]

Sorry to here what happened, hope all of you co workers make a full recovery. I know how you feel there BIGDIG I'm a volunteer firefighter and have to deal with some of the same things you deal with. Even with all the reflective clothing we were they still say "I didn't see you" Then on the other hand with being a EMT when we respond to a call 9 times out of ten the cops are already there and they let us know how and what happened, and say if it was DUI and that burns me that we have to give them the same kind of care that we do the other people they hurt. Some times If they art to bad Ill let them sit there in pain till the medics show up and try to take care of the other people. Its just BULL SH@#T that these people usually walk away and some incessant buy stander has to pay for them being an A$$ . O well I could go on and on but you get the point.

MIKE

 

[JR2]

Here is Alaska we have a "double fine" law in construction zones. Get caught speeding and the penality is double what the normal one is. Its a great law and the cops enforce it real hard.



Prayers for you co-workers. .

 

[BIGDIG]

This was in todays paper. .

Teen charged in road crew rundown free

A Cambridge teen charged with mowing down two Big Dig workers with her car Saterday as she allegedly barreled stoned and drunk through the Sumner Tunnel at double the speed limit was allowed to walk free yesterday. (holding name),19 a student at Massachusetts College of Art,was released on personal recognizance by Boston Municipal Court Judge,Judge A-hole. She allegedly struck and pinned worker(31) and worker(55),beneath her Toyota Corolla...

So what the freek kinda country do we live in#@$%! . I just get the urge to Oo. on her face with my size 13EE Redwings. I havn't heard anything on their condition but my company is taking up a collection for their families while they are recovering...

 

[Camara]

Don't you just love it. 2 guys in the hospital, long recovery and she gets to walk around. Makes you kind of want to go to her house and break her legs just to see if she likes it or not. But we all know you can't do that sort of thing so we just have to wait and see how it all pans out. Hopefully she will loose her priveledge to operate a mv, her insurance will go through the roof and she will have to make some sort of restitution to the families because she was STUPID!

 

[QRTRHRS]

Originally posted by JR2

Here is Alaska we have a "double fine" law in construction zones. Get caught speeding and the penality is double what the normal one is. Its a great law and the cops enforce it real hard.



Prayers for you co-workers. .

Don't most states do that now?



BIGDIG, sounds like the paper soffened the whole deal up? You can bet if she was driving a pickup, or if it was a man driving, the story would have been different.



How are your friends doing?