worker safety, but come on !this was ridiculous

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

I was driving along Belgrave -Hallam road and as I approached NarreWarren North on an 80 kph zone I was greeeted with one of those flashing trailer mounted signs stating Workmen ahead, then the speed dropped to 60 kph and then 40 kph, the centre line was lined with those tall plastic traffic diversion poles, the same applied for some distance ahead of me for vehicles comming in the opposite direction.... Any way expacting some sort of major road work project, I was greeted by the sight of a Private Driveway cross over being contructed from a back yard.
This just takes OH&S to stupidity, firstly it was an inconvenience to all road users, some people obviously took it as a joke and sped through, and the poor bloke getting the driveway must surely be paying for all this extra equipment.
I'm all for Safety of workers , but this is a joke.

[spudboy]

More and more, we live in a nanny state :mad:

[lewy]

not to mention the cost to the worker who gets killed because someone didn't obey the road rules

[CraigE]

Yes, but look at the flipside. Stand on a road and let cars wiz past you at 60, 80 or even 110 and see how vulnerable you feel. I have done it and believe me when cars or worse trucks do not slow down it scares you witless. Granted most of mine have been in 60 or 20 zones, but not everyone slows anyway and I have had triple road trains come into a 20 zone at 80 and when you are inches away from the truck it is not nice.

[Bundalene]

I don't mind the speed zones for workers safety, and try to obey them. The one that does annoy me is when the "END ROADWORK" sign is a km up the road - or worse still not there at all.

I think Qld police patrol these areas more than any others I have come across - especially at night when all the workers have knocked off.

Erich.

[vnx205]

Those sorts of OH&S requirements are not exactly new. Although it wouldn't have been called OH&S back then.

In the mid 70s, I was part of a crew working on pulling up some unused railway line to an old silo somewhere between Narrabri and Moree.

Because we were working within something like 20 metres of the main railway line, we had to have detonators set on the line and a railway employee stationed there all day to act as some sort of flagman for passing trains.

As we were close to 20 metres from the line, I thought at the time that it was a bit over the top.

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

I don't mind the speed zones for workers safety, and try to obey them. The one that does annoy me is when the "END ROADWORK" sign is a km up the road - or worse still not there at all.

I think Qld police patrol these areas more than any others I have come across - especially at night when all the workers have knocked off.

Erich.
Don't get me wrong I religiously obey the signs as I believe in safety and don't want to get a fine. But the distances they start the 40 kph speed limits from where the workers actually are is a joke, that's why a lot of other drivers seem to ignore them as they get impatient driving long distances at that speed. An then tail gate, doing the speed limit, Let's face, school zones don't even have that long a 40 kph restriction zone. And then the end of road work signs are a long way from the workers also...... It would be nice sometimes if they taker the signs away when they are not working. How many times have we driven at very low sppeds and no one is even on site

[willem]

The trouble is that when they set limits that are ridiculous people get frustrated and ignore them, and the limits become counter productive, and you lose more safety than you gain. But the human pendulum swing reigns supreme. We human beings find it difficult to find that right balance between safety and the nanny state. We go from being dangerous to being so flamin careful we can't move anymore. And then back again!

Willem

[lewy]

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/doingbusinesswithus/downloads/tcws_manual_version3/tcwsv3section8i.pdf

[It'sNotWorthComplaining!]

The poor property owner that mows his nature strip on a busy road or the charity highway collector don't have this sort of protection.....

[alien]

As a truck driver I agree, pain in the a**e.
BUT was there a tipper there to cart matrial away, aggitator delivering concrete?
I know when I droped scaffolding off, the road had to "safe" before I could even approach the area.
Put your self in their shoes, driving past we don,t get the full picture.

Just my 2 cents, but they are a pain all the same.

[cjc_td5]

The poor property owner that mows his nature strip on a busy road or the charity highway collector don't have this sort of protection.....

Yes and the difference may be just that. Volunteers (or if you are not being paid) are not covered by OH&S legislation therefore WorkCover are generally not interested. Therefore they can get away with not applying the standard safeguards. As soon as there is a paid person onsite, then the WorkCover requirements kick in and you would be pretty exposed if you were to ignore them.

Working in the LG sector, I have been trying for years to make driveway concretors aware of their requirements and exposures doing this sort of work. Most of them don't want to know about it, but if there was an accident on their worksite, WorkCover would have them for dinner.

Working beside traffic is not fun. A wise mentor once said to me to consider each car to be a bullet, if you get hit your gonna die.

[CraigE]

The poor property owner that mows his nature strip on a busy road or the charity highway collector don't have this sort of protection.....
The mower I get and it is really a council job, but I would never condemn someone for putting their hand up and helping keep the area nice. Bit of difference though being on a median strip as being compared to being on the actual road, basically same as being on a footpath.
The charity collector, well if they are on the road they are commiting an offence, it is an offence to solicite anything from traffic.

[Slunnie]

The trouble is that when they set limits that are ridiculous people get frustrated and ignore them, and the limits become counter productive, and you lose more safety than you gain. But the human pendulum swing reigns supreme. We human beings find it difficult to find that right balance between safety and the nanny state. We go from being dangerous to being so flamin careful we can't move anymore. And then back again!

Willem
Its a little catch-22 really. Shorten the distances and people cant "roll-down" in time, lengthen it and its too long and then people dont slow down. Short of issuing infringements (not how 15years ago everybody used to drive at 20km/h over the speed limit, not so anymore) or no doubt these areas will also be fitted with speed humps to force vehicles to slow down due to the human nature factor.