Our Lives Are In Your Hands!

Some of the images here were shamelessly stolen from
http://www.car-accidents.com
If the above mentioned web site objects to the usage of the images they will be promptly removed.

You on the other hand are not required to attend these safety meetings every ten days. You are not reminded every ten days of how deadly your activities can be. Perhaps we are going about this the wrong way, maybe the public would be better served if drivers had to attend these safety meeting as well. On any given day we see you behind the wheel of a potentially deadly weapon. You're talking on your cell phones, shaving, putting on your make up, reading magazines, books, newspapers, talking with your passengers, eating your lunch, drinking your coffee, soda and God forbid alcoholic beverages! Everyday these activities you do place our lives as well as your own and those of the passengers in your vehicle and those in the vehicles that you share the roads with at risk, serious risk. Yet you don't give it a second thought. You just mindlessly continue to do these things dispite the numerous close calls you have had. What will it take to get you to understand how dangerously irresponsible you are being? How many lives must be tragically and senselessly sacrificed to your self centered desires?

In the past 2 months our CalTrans family has suffered the tragic lose of 3 family members. 3 families have had to endure the heart wrenching news of the loss of their loved one. These 3 men were killed while performing their duties of trying to keep your highway system safe and in good repair. These 3 men, all members of a group of people that you make jokes about, shout obscenities at, give very unkind hand gestures to and sometimes even resort to violence against will never again return home to their families from their days work! These tragedies were all preventable. Inattentiveness by the drivers of the offending vehicles may or may not have caused these tragedies, the details of which are unknown to this author at this time. Regardless of whether inattentive drivers caused these accidents or not they may well could have and that is the point being made here. Driving safely requires your upmost attention. If in fact inattentiveness was not a factor in these tragic fatalities the point of how important attentiveness to your driving is, is greatly highlighted.

Driving a vehicle is a responsibility you should not take lightly. The safe operation of that vehicle demands that you as the driver make it's operation your number one priority. Hang up the cell phone and pay attention. If you must talk on it, if the call is truly that important that it can't wait, pull over, stop your car and talk to your hearts delight. Eat your lunch in the park, parked under a shade tree, in your dining room........ any place other than driving down the road. Shave in your bathroom at home, and put your make up on there too. Don't endanger the lives of others simply because you lack the skills of proper planning and time management. Once you make the decision to drive your vehicle you must also take the responsibility of driving it safely. Anything that will distract you from safely operating your vehicle must be avoided whenever possible. Think about the lives your actions could impact in a very negative way, including your own. If you kill someone with your automobile due to your neglect of it's safe operation you could find yourself behind bars for a very long time. It's called vehicular manslaughter. You will have to live with your guilt and shame for the rest of your life.

Before you tell that next joke about the CalTrans workers standing around while only one is working, stop and think about why there is so much equipment at the job site and how it got there. Why does that big dump truck have that great big box hanging off the back of it? Why is it seemingly just parked there wasting tax dollars and not being used? What is that big box on the back of it for? It's called a crash attenuator. It is there to absorb most of the impact of your automobile crashing into the work zone and hopefully saving your life as well as someone elses. Those vehicles that are just parked there are called barrier vehicles. They are parked in a strategic way to try and prevent your vehicle from entering the work zone and killing or seriously injuring the workers. Someone had to drive them there. The duty of driving the very necessary barrier vehicle to the work site might be the only job a worker has for the given operation. Why are these barrier vehicles needed? Isn't the answer to that question shockingly obvious. How many times have you seen people who seem to be racing to get in front of you, wait for the very last few hundred feet before dangerously forcing their way into the open lane at a lane closure at speeds greatly exceeding those that are safe. If you people would just consider someone other than yourselves. If you would just take a second to realize that we don't want to disrupt your busy lives. If you would take on the responsibility of driving your vehicles in a safe manner. A manner that gives respect to a work zone and the workers in it. If you would just do what common decency dictates. If you would do these things many of these lane closures would not be needed. The disruption to your life would be kept to a minimal. Instead we see you zipping by us at speeds that are greatly exceeding what is safe for the situation. We see you tail gating and performing many other actions that are endangering our lives. What is your freaking hurry? Why can't you just slow down, pay attention, obey the law and give the workers trying to make your life a little safer, a little nicer, the respect they deserve. We want to go home at night just like you. Is anything really that important to justify your wilfull endangerment of your fellow human beings? I think not!

To those of you that take your driving responsibility seriously, realize the dangers involved and thereby drive attentively and safely we thank you. Our families and friends also thank you..... very much! Please take another moment or two to email a link to this article to your loved ones and others that could benefit from reading it.

On behalf of all highway maintenance & construction workers world wide I beg you to drive safely and thank you for doing so.