At the most recent city council meeting Jan. 18, Mayor Tim Johnston brought up the fact that there are motorists in Thompson that seem to have a blatant lack of respect for city crews working on the roads - to the point where sometimes, the workers are in danger.
Wayne Koversky, director of public works with the City of Thompson, says Johnston was referring to an incident that happened recently during a major water main break on Selkirk Avenue. He says there was about a foot and a half of water and ice on the street at the time which encroached right up to the steps of the post office. Koversky notes that despite the total area being flooded, some motorists continued to carry on driving through the street at high speeds, splashing workers we were trying to liberate the catch basins on the street. Eventually, he says, the road had to be barricaded.
"Sooner or later one of my employees are going to get run over," Koversky says. "We take the covers off the catch basins. You have a swirl of water with ice underneath that's going into a massive hole, and you're trying to watch that you don't fall down that hole and at the same time you have traffic to deal with."
Although Koversky says the vast majority of drivers are courteous and conscientious around city workers, there are a few bad apples that continue to show disregard for the fact that the road is a workplace for some people.
"What we need from the public's point of view, is when they see a barricaded street and they see water on it, there's a reason behind that - it's barricaded for their protection as well as that of our employees, and I think we need to get that message out more," he explains. "I have an excellent crew. They work every day, they don't complain, they don't ask for much, but what they do ask for is a little care and caution when you drive around them on the street."
The SAFE Roads campaign is a partnership between the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation, the Manitoba Floodway Authority, Manitoba Hydro, the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association/Manitoba Heavy Construction Safety Program, the Manitoba Government Employees Union (MGEU), the City of Brandon Police Service, the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service and the Winnipeg Construction Association/Construction Safety Association of Manitoba. SAFE Roads says it "aims to make drivers more conscious of the safety of construction, emergency services and utility workers whose work requires they be on the road to do their job."
Speeding in construction zones can generate fines under the Highway Traffic Act - with the base fine for offenders caught speeding while workers are present on the highway being increased by five dollars for each kilometre recorded over the posted speed limit - but what about driving carelessly on roads where crews are working within city limits? The MGEU says that in Manitoba there's no specific designated speed for passing emergency workers. Police in other cities have taken to setting up radar at construction zones, but last summer Manitoba's attorney general asked police to stop using photo radar in construction zones until the province and the city of Winnipeg could have a chance to discuss the legal intricacies of the issue.
The SAFE Roads campaign released information last May that stated that a recent survey showed Manitobans are, for the most part, frustrated when driving through road construction zones, and that 77 per cent of them see people driving too fast through these areas. On the bright size, the survey shows that over eight in 10 Manitobans surveyed say they are conscious of the safety of road construction workers.
Warren Preece, director of communications with the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of Manitoba, says a lot of people on the road just focus on getting to their destination and forget that, for many people, the road is their workplace.
"That's sort of why we're trying to sensitize people to that, because there's all kinds of workers on the road - construction workers, utility workers like Manitoba Hydro, city sewer workersThere's also emergency responders - you have police, fire and ambulance workers on the road, and they expect - and deserve - for people to drive with care and attention."
The WCB is involved in spreading the word about safe driving near workers through their Safe Work awareness campaign.
