Posted on 05/02/2018 6:47:33 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The next time you drive through a highway work zone, or past an accident scene or a disabled vehicle, think about Robert Gensimore.
A highway foreman for PennDOT, he was struck by a car and killed last week while setting up flares to warn motorists about an accident on Interstate 99 near Altoona.
Gensimore was 45. His funeral is this morning. He was like many of us. Married, two kids, star high-school athlete, active in his community as a volunteer firefighter. He was just doing his job when he died.
About 90 PennDOT workers have been killed on the job since 1970. More than 30 Pennsylvania Turnpike workers also have been killed.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
More maniacs causing work zone mayhem.
This is terrible. I thought the tone of the article was appropriate, but like riding a motorcycle, one has to keep in mind that when working around moving cars, you must assume that every car passing may hit you. When I am a pedestrian near a highway with moving vehicles, I do not take my eyes off the traffic.
Granted, I know these people have to work there (and aren’t just pedestrians) but depending with your life on random people passing by in multi-ton vehicles to follow rules or be cautious in order to keep your life is more than I would be willing to lay on the table.
It is like stepping out into a crosswalk. I know the law is with me, but I always verify they are going to stop.
That’s why I approve of speed cameras (which I normally oppose) in construction zones. So many idiots just have to get to work, drug dealer, whatever two minutes faster.
Years ago I taught 2 girls whose father worked for MDOT & was sideswiped & killed while on the job. They were very young when it happened. Their mother did an outstanding job of raising them. She eventually remarried & sub’s at my school.
I’m going to agree w/ you about them being used in construction zones.
Subs
My gosh, that is a completely and totally sore spot with me with the State of Maryland.
I know when I used to come down to hang out with the DC Chapter, I was warned (rightfully, and thankfully) to watch out for cameras, which is fine because I generally don’t speed (out of state, in-state I understand the local customs and leeway’s given to drivers) and don’t run stop lights or signs if I can avoid it.
Anyway, a few years back (around 2009-2012 maybe?) I came down to Maryland, and on my way home, got stuck in traffic on the main highway north of Baltimore where they were doing all that construction. It took nearly four hours to go ten miles on a Sunday morning...I was nearly crazy with irritation.
Well, when I reached a spot where the traffic began to break free, I just accelerated to highway speed along with everyone else and took off, going no faster than everyone else.
I got a ticket in the mail about a month later with a picture of my car and its plate. I distinctly remember seeing a large plywood box on stilts on the side of the road RIGHT AT THAT POINT WHERE TRAFFIC BROKE FREE. It was gathering revenue for the State of Maryland.
I was damned spitting mad for several months, thinking of all the ways I could fight back, until my wife told me I was driving her crazy and to just pay the fine and be done with it.
Which I did.
It did not register on me at the time what that plywood box with a small square black hole adorned with the sign “END OF CONSTRUCTION ZONE” was, and I thought it was a strange way to put up a sign, but when I got that ticket I knew exactly what and where it was taken: Taking pictures of cars EXITING the construction zone going up to highway speed while still technically in the construction zone.
I am a rule follower. When I see signs to merge due to construction, I do it at the first sight of the sign, not when traffic cones force me to. As a rule, I go no faster than the ambient speed cars are traveling at.
But damn it, that was entrapment pure and simple. (See, you can tell I am STILL pissed about it after all these years!)
See my post at #8 about the use of those by the State of Maryland.
I will differ, I don’t agree with the use of them under ANY circumstances.
In my opinion, we pay the cops to do that, not sit in their cars by the side of the road near construction sites looking at their laps or chatting with friends. At time and a half (or more on off hours, weekends, or holidays) they should earn that money, not delegate it to cameras which are abused as a revenue gathering device.
Of course, in liberal states like mine and Maryland, they have scandals where the overtime systems (even as exorbitantly and lavishly extravagant as those overtime processes are) are abused by police to even further fleece the taxpayers. They just had a huge scandal about it in my state, which is no surprise.
Boy, I am still pissed about that ticket.
Wisconsin is the "Badger State".
West Virginia is the "Mountain State".
Wyoming is the "Cowboy State".
Maryland is the "FxxK YOU!!! State".
Grrrrr. I used to live down there years ago, and had fond memories.
It is quite a different place now than it was back in the early Seventies.
But then again, so is everywhere else in this country of ours...
“Thats why I approve of speed cameras (which I normally oppose) in construction zones. So many idiots just have to get to work, drug dealer, whatever two minutes faster.”
We agree.
I normally object to speed cameras but construction zones are where they could serve a legitimate purpose.
I would go a bit further and say that the presence of work zone speed cameras must be plainly posted.
Just this morning - in a construction work zone - I had some idiot speed around me as workers and crews were present.
He got away with it. Never a cop around when you need one.
As they should be.
Yours definitely sounds like entrapment. It’s a fine line between safety & a money grab.
Agreed as well.
Argh. I hate leaving that fine line in the hands of bureaucrats. It reminds me of the case Citizens United vs. FEC where Eleana Kegan was arguing the case for the government, and was asked by the bench about the laws on censorship, and if they would be enforced in this case or that.
Kagan answered something along the lines that yes, the statutes would allow prosecution, but in practice, it generally isn’t done, so nothing to worry about.
Justice Scalia (I think) stood up, leaned over and looked down at her and forcefully said something like “We don’t, as a practice, leave our liberty up to the whims of bureaucrats in some government agency!”
(I had to paraphrase, because I can’t find it in the transcript...I might not be looking in the right place or for the right wording)
bump
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