worker safety, but come on !this was ridiculous

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.....

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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.

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Originally Posted by 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.....

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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.

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Originally Posted by 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

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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.