Stop –> Go

Yashvin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:36:17 +0000

A few days ago, I yelled at a man who was doing his job on the road. I felt a bit bad as I was rude to him but there is no excuse when it comes to road safety.

Update : I repeat, I felt bad. No need to say that I did not have to yell at him! At that moment, he was the one responsible for the traffic, even if the planning etc are made in office and with improper control of the traffic at that moment, vehicules going in opposite directions could collide. [End of update]

As you have probably seen, various parts of our road network are currently under works for improving the existing road infrastructure. Added to these, several private companies are installing cables or connecting houses to the waste water network, among others. Most of the time, special arrangements (or deviations) need to made to control the traffic flow. Unfortunately, in lots of cases, you will notice that the private companies put their own men to control the traffic, and sometimes the traffic signs are either useless or innappropriate.

The man I am talking about was standing besides a “Go/Stop” road sign at the other end of the area under road works. With no proper traffic signal at my end, I continued my way along my lane. And guess what? On reaching the end of the area, the man had his road sign, with the “STOP” on my side and the “GO” on the other, instructing the vehicles of the opposite direction to drive in. It was a deadlock situation.

As I stated above, I shouted at the man as vehicles were driving in from both sides onto a single lane. I asked him how could he control the traffic at one end only? In this desperate situation, he nodded his head as he was not aware that there was no one at the other end.

Another example of lack of planning and management could be the fact that road signs are not removed when the road works are completed. For some reason, they might even have temporarily stopped the works and the signs (including speed limitations) will stay untouched for days and even weeks.

I don’t know if these people hold some kind of traffic control certificate but as far as I know, they are not police officers and they probably do not have a good notion of road safety and traffic control. As usual, you will only hear the authorities trying to take action when someone gets killed (either road users or the workers) due to carelessness of these third parties.

Danger Zone : Men at work along motorway

Yashvin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:48:17 +0000

Trimming the grass, somewhere around Terre Rouge

Did you ever notice those men busy working along the motorway? Yes, the same ones who are paid to trim the grass or even pick up bottles or empty snack packets which some of you throw while driving.

Well, I have been coming across them since a few months now, nearly on a daily basis. Equipped with their string trimmers (aka “l’appareil taille gazon“), they usually work in groups and move along together when they have finished trimming the grass in that area. They also wear appropriate clothing to protect themselves from the stones or other objects flying around while they are working. But there is a big lack of equipment which informs road users about works in progress.

However, I have been wondering what would happen if one of those objects fly towards a vehicle. At such a high speed, a window or even the car’s windscreen can easily blow into pieces, putting everyone in danger : the driver and the passengers. The driver can easily lose control of his vehicle, which can hit the guy and any other vehicles passing by.

Fortunately, there haven’t been such incidents (and accidents) till now and let’s hope that they are provided with the proper equipment to inform drivers to slow down in those areas.

And can you imagine the danger they are exposed to? Unfortunately, they do not really have a choice.

Bon weekend to everyone!

Yashvin, pages of my life » road works

Stop –> Go

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