Flaggers at construction sites

Y’all know the drill. When you see this sign, you know what’s coming ahead. You know what the sign means.

It means “pay attention!” and it means “slow down!” It means there’s some sort of road construction ahead or there is at least some sort of restriction of vehicle traffic ahead for whatever reason … a restriction that is managed usually by two people who are directing traffic, each of them at opposite ends of the restriction, each of them often wearing a radio of some sort so they can communicate with the flagger at the opposite end.

Seems the flagger I always see first is this one …

Easy to understand, eh? Put the brakes on and come to a complete stop and wait until you have permission to move forward.

Then you sit there awhile and look at whatever is happening ahead, you check out the construction and what’s being done, you look in your mirrors to check out the cars behind you, you look around at the buildings or the houses or the scenery in the area, you look ahead and try to figure out what traffic is being allowed through in the opposite direction, and based on that you try to figure out how long you’re going to have to sit there, and you clean your fingernails, you think about checking your email on your phone (don’t do it!), and eventually the flagger does this …

Yay! You pull forward, turning into the one lane that’s now a through-lane for your one lane of traffic, waving a thank-you to the flagger. You’re eager to get on your way. You pass the construction area and eventually pull back into your own lane, passing the flagger at the other end of the area, and then you continue on as usual on your way down the road. Piece of cake right?

Right.

Well, not so much for me the other day.

I didn’t get photos. There wasn’t time. I had stopped when I was directed to, I was first in line. After a little while, not very long really, I got the go-ahead signal from the flagger, so I pulled into the opposite lane and continued past the construction area. I don’t know why, but I sensed something. As I was pulling along side one of the construction rigs, I slowed down. I wasn’t going very fast of course, but I slowed down even a tad more. And it was a darned good thing I did.

At that instant, another flagger (a third flagger-person who was not on duty) walked right smack out into the road RIGHT in front of my truck without looking. In fact, he was already facing away from me when he stepped into the roadway, so he could not have seen me when he first stepped into the roadway. He wasn’t five feet in front of me, RIGHT in front of my bumper. And he kept walking! Without looking!

There was lots of shouting from lots of people on the ground around him. The flagger at the far end of the construction area was shouting and jumping and waving her sign.

I was stunned. It took me a nano-second, but I slammed on the brakes, and then I put my fist on the horn on my steering wheel and I just laid into that horn! The guy practically jumped out of his skin at that (by then he really was just 2 or 3 feet in front of me). And then he looked around. And then he really did jump out of his skin. He realized what he’d done … how close he had come to being killed.

I stopped my truck, put it in park, shut the engine off, holding up traffic behind me. I got out of my truck and walked up to him. By then, the flagger at the far end of the traffic restriction (she had seen the whole thing), she had run back as fast as she could, she was now back there right with him as I walked up to him.

The guy was shaking. First I put my arms around him … he really was shaking, really hard. I gave him a few moments, but not long. He calmed down a bit, and then I let him have it … verbally only, but I really let him have it. I told him that his boss couldn’t talk to him the way I was going to talk to him, but that I could talk any way I wanted to! I used several F-words (I was scared too, what if I had hit him and killed him?). I asked him to tell me the name of his mother, his wife, his kids, his dog, he loves fishing (nope, not fly fishing but at least its fishing). By the end of our “talk” his head was hanging down around his knees and at one time he had to dry the tears on his face. I shed a tear or two myself.

And then I looked around and realized there were 12-15 construction workers right there with us too. I paused, and stood there. And then the guy looked up at me, he said “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. Whatever made you slow down … you, and whatever that was, saved my life. I’m so sorry.”

I gave him another long hug, and he hugged me back.

As I was getting back in my truck, another fellow walked up to me. Turns out this next fellow was the boss of the construction job. He shook my hand and thanked me several times. He said, “I’ve never heard a woman swear like that before … damn!” He said he would leave the guy alone; that the fellow had more than likely learned his lesson. But he still stood there and kept shaking my hand. Other people were still standing around us too. I think everyone realized that someone could have been killed that day.

So … what’s the moral of this story? I guess there are a number of them … slow down, way down, around any place where you can’t see what might pop out in front of your vehicle. Don’t be concerned about holding up traffic behind you. Any frustration that those drivers behind you have is not nearly as bad as killing someone.

And for crying out loud, don’t step out into ANY roadway without turning your head and very specifically looking both ways … on roadways and on railroad tracks. Stop, look, and listen!

And … don’t be afraid to swear when swearing is very much warranted. 😉