No doubt about it.
Summer road construction is frustrating for drivers.
Detours, line-ups and ripped up pavement aren’t exactly conducive to smooth driving.
But what’s the alternative?
Road maintenance work has to be done or complaints flood in about crumbling curbs and yawning potholes. Ultimately new or upgraded road projects result in better, more efficient transportation around our city.
But there are drivers among us who ignore all these very reasonable facts, and feel like they are entitled to beak off at flaggers and road crews – sometimes showing an astonishing display of ignorant behaviour. Sometimes this even escalates into dangerous behaviour, either by ignoring the directions of the traffic control personnel, or behaving in an aggressive manner towards them.
As a result, road work can be a very dangerous job. From 2005 to 2008 in B.C., 15 flaggers were hit on the job, two of whom died from their injuries. Other sources claim that more than 400 traffic control people have been injured in road construction zones over the past five years.
There is simply no reason for drivers to behave dangerously and put the lives of others at risk. There’s also no excuse for plain old rudeness.
Follow the advice Justin Trudeau received from his father Pierre, in the years following his infamous Salmon Arm Salute. When you wave at a flagger, be sure you are doing it with all five fingers.