Winter is officially over and our second season is starting.  No, not spring, CONSTRUCTION!  It is another season of road construction here in the Chicago area and throughout the US.  Traffic tie-ups, slow downs and the infamous flagger person telling you to “Slow down or STOP (for about 10 - 20 minutes).

I have been a flagger instructor for about 3 years.  I have also taught the flagger instructor class, but driving around the city, I must be the worst trainer ever.  I see people:

• Using the emergency vehicle flag to direct traffic
• Standing in the middle of the street with a Slow/Stop sign directing two-way traffic
• Road construction people using their hands
• Road construction people without safety vests
• Construction people walking out into traffic to stop oncoming traffic to let a vehicle into or out of the construction site
• Many other dumb things

Road construction injuries are up every year.  When I teach the flagger class I always like to start with the students telling about the scary incidents that have happended to them, and there are many.  Yet as I drive out on the road, I seldom see a flagger doing it right.  If they use the Stop/Slow sign they do not use hand signals, or they don’t use the sign correctly.   Having less road construction injuries means we have to be better drivers in these areas, but also the contruction people have to be better safety people.

Chicago’s second season is beginning this month.  Now that winter is almost over the road construction season begins.  But watch out.  This year IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) and the Illinois State Police will be watching you, or taking your picture.  I also understand many other states are using this practice too.

Whenever workers are in a work zone, the speed limit is 45 MPH.  Speeders beware.   Marked white photo enforcement vans are equipped with the latest in photo radar technology designed to record the speed of vehicles and to capture clear images of the driver and the license plate. Tickets are sent by certified mail to drivers within 14 business days. Under the toughened work zone speeding fines that took effect last year, first time offenders face a $375 fine; second time offenders face a $1,000 fine and the loss of their drivers license for 90 days.  Illinois averages 6,700 crashes in highway work zones every year, resulting in approximately 2,800 injuries.

So this construction season as you pass through a worksite going 70 MPH remember to smile, You’re On Candid Camera.