Posted on 07/25/2016 12:19:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Multiple-fatality crashes in Utah road construction zones have drawn increased scrutiny to the inherent hazards of work areas and the lackadaisical attention many drivers pay to safety warnings there.
“Despite all of our work with Zero Fatalities and safety messages, people are on their cell phones talking and texting and looking at other things,” said Vic Saunders, Utah Department of Transportation Region One spokesman. “Within the confines of construction zones, with narrower lanes and barriers that make it a little bit tighter, people are wavering back and forth, and the danger is magnified for everyone.”
Utah road construction zone crashes have killed 67 people in the last five years and seriously injured 288 more, with speeding and aggressive or distracted driving as the top causes, state transportation data shows.
The total of all injuries or suspected injuries from work-zone wrecks reached 4,726 over the five-year period, according to data obtained from UDOT.
“People just don’t pay attention,” said George Burbidge II, an attorney representing Ogden-based contractor Staker Parson. “They treat road construction areas just as cavalierly as they do driving down the street, which is not very carefully.”
But as population and traffic volumes continue to increase, UDOT and contractors are also increasingly under the gun to make work zones as safe as possible.
In another attempt to curb the likelihood of construction area crashes, UDOT has implemented variable speed limits, with electronic signs calling attention to alternating limits ranging from 55 to 70 mph. Spokesman John Gleason said with many drivers taking for granted the standard 55 mph limit, the idea is to do more to hold drivers’ attention and allow faster speeds in sections of a project area where no active work is happening.
(Excerpt) Read more at standard.net ...
How many crashes were caused by impaired drivers?
There’s only so much, in a free country, that can be done to protect people from themselves.
How many crashes were caused by illegal drivers?
a very good question.
In 2010, nearly 700 Chicago school children were shot and 66 of them died. Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended a memorial for 260 school children who had been killed in just the previous three years
Another good question.
I like that one. I see too many work areas that are 10 miles long with no work actually taking place. If they only reduce the speed for actual work areas, that would be great.
If its anything like around here, maybe people are getting used to ignoring construction zone signs and speed limits when the cones and signs go up for months while there’s nothing actually happening, construction-wise. You can’t expect people to take construction zone speed limits seriously when they are regularly driving for miles and miles through so-called construction zones where the only signs of construction are orange and black barrels and maybe orange lines on the road.
I actually slow down to posted limits. I take the double the fines or worse signs seriously. What floors me are drivers that doesn’t slow down in construction zones. I end up passing some of them a short time later doing the posted speed limit. What up with that?
In Texas there will usually be a sign that warns drivers “in construction zone traffic fines double”.
Require the driver to toss his/her iPhone onto the back seat.
Thread hijack.
DRINK!
Illinois used to be like this. I think they are much better now. I have taken some recent trips to Michigan. They have a fairly good system in place. You're suppose to slow down to 60 and then 45 when workers are present.
In my town they seem to like to keep a number of projects open at one time.
What this results in, is areas of the city all torn up at one time, while work is only taking place in one or two of them. Four or five can sit idle, still considered to be a work area.
What this does is cause traffic hazards all over the city.
If open pits and traffic cones and blockades were optimal, roads would be designed that way.
So at least part of this, is the poor planning and obvious road hazards that exist that shouldn’t.
Tear up one area. Complete the work in a short period of time and move on.
I’ve watched as some of these torn up areas last 18 months or longer, with them diddling as if they hadn’t a worry in the world.
Can’t blame all this on the drivers. Some of it is blamable on the planners not paying attention. Perhaps they should put their texting devices down.
Tell me when will the construction end? It never ends between happy valley and SLC; always a traffic jam. Frustrated drivers dart in and out of traffic seeking a fast lane. And last Saturday night I-80 all eastbound lanes shut down at 10:00 pm. God knows why.
Don’t get me started about Utah traffic. I have lived here for twenty years and the construction has never ended.
How many crashes were caused by illegal drivers?
Exactly!
This is why I increasingly gain the most salient information or commentary from posters to articles rather than than from the articles themselves.
Sadly, even the mainstream “conservative-friendly” news sites self censor to a disturbing degree, denying us either factual information or reasonable conjecture on controversial (that is, controversial by leftist design) topics.
I thought the drinking game was only for abortion-related thread hijack attempts. No doubt Mr. Arrows will correct me if I am wrong. I hope I’m not, though, since my liver won’t stand up to taking a drink every time someone tries to hijack a thread.
The drinking game is for all hijacks. I used abortion as an example because abortion hijacks are so common on animal threads.
OK, then.
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