Another one bites the dust...and another one gone...

I've read on here; that some GPS gear; can take a lickin and keep on ticking.....

Does it still work?

Ouch; that looks like it really hurt:'(

Apparently there are no cracks in the unit and we sent it to our dealer to be checked and calibrated, or replaced if need be. Usually though, if there are no exterior cracks they are fine. They are made to withstand being knocked over, but not run over by a vehicle.

Obviously that rod and bipod are toast.

Did you guys have signs out? Was anybody babysitting the unit? If so what happened to him? Looks like you had wide lanes. Sometimes you have to close a lane to put the bipod legs.

Is the driver really at fault? I can see his insurance company fighting this, we when have to take shots in the middle of the road we like to stand near the unit and let drivers know to slow down and avoid us and the equipment.

I hope you unit is still working or its a cheap, fast repair.

A control point in the middle of the road???? No MPT but a couple cones???? I'd consider myself lucky if he didn't come after me! A setup in PA like that would require a lane closure with signs and cone transitions.

I have found that putting them in a nearby crossover, shoulder or turn lane is preferable if you can get away with it.

Welcome to PLSSia

Hundreds of thousands of section corners and quarter corners and smaller aliquot corners fall along the centerline of roads and in the center of road intersections. You learn to deal with it.

At Least 3 Cones Ahead Each Way

You have to get their attention before they get to the critical point. Then there are the idiots that go out of their way to mow down a row of cones.

I think it has been 20 years since I shot a PennDOT highway centerline. That took an extra day over the estimate. The closest I get now is the white outside lane stripes. Use DOT cross-section design info if CL elevation is required. Transitions in and out of superelevation require more calculating.

Paul in PA

In addition to the regular cones, I have two extra tall ones I use when I'm in the middle of an intersection. However...

The real problem is explained by the news article from Atlanta today, where seven cars were involved in a smashup. Six of the seven drivers were arrested for DUI. That's so scary, and that's not even counting the ones busy texting.

Sorry that it happened to you bro.

All I can say is that now you know what not to do.

I set up as far away from the pavement as possible with GPS or TS.

It is GPS, you can have a base tucked safely away miles away and get rover shots on anything. If it takes half an hour or more for a static on a point, set yourself, caution fence, truck, speed strips or whatever in place to guard your equipment.

When TxDot works inside the ROWs, they set up as many cones as it takes around the work area, close lanes/s for work area and place flagmen at each end of diverted traffic lanes and possibly have an escort vehicle to maintain speed control.

You cut costs on safety and that is what you get.

Thank yourself and your insurance agent and pray that you don't get cancelled after this.

Many years ago we were setting control and helping our client tie sec cors using Trimble 4000STs.... static on points for 45 minutes or so. One night we had one run down on a gravel back road by a young man on his way to see his sweetie. Even though we had a truck backing up the point with flashers and a rotating beacon he still ran right into it. Nearly hit the truck too. When I got there the receiver just laid there recording epochs... tough little sucker. That ended sessions for the night. Got his insurance info, etc..... but later on his insurance company pointed out that we were not in legal signage compliance which in Kansas is spelled out in great detail. We each fixed our own damages... a learning experience for sure. The 4000St was returned to service after a check out in Sunnyvale... no real damages. We were lucky.

Don't know about traffic laws in your side of the world, but the cars have priority on the road.
Even pedestrians can only cross the streets at designated points where there are clear markings - stop, pedxing signs, crosssing lines, etc.

You were set up in the middle of the road occupying a section of both lanes.
I don't think cones are enough. Construction & cleaning crews have to set up warning signs or lights at 50m, 100m distances before the construction site.

I think you may lose your case here. Your equipment are a hazard to oncoming traffic.

What worries me though is the title of the post, how many GPS have been destroyed by you placing them in the middle of the road?

Welcome to PLSSia

> Hundreds of thousands of section corners and quarter corners and smaller aliquot corners fall along the centerline of roads and in the center of road intersections. You learn to deal with it.

Don't get me started.

Welcome to PLSSia

"Back-in-the-day" when we chained section boundaries and wrapped angles at section corners (until our eyeballs fell out) the firm I worked for had an incident with a gunner set up on a quarter corner. Wasn't my crew but a fella got nailed in the shoulder by an extended mirror on a pickup. It put him in a cast and ruined a perfectly good theodolite.

Our company policy after that was to set traverse points off the side of the road at strategic locations (less than 100' from the land corners). Only after we had closed and adjusted our traverse we would wrap angles and chain side-shots to the corners.

We had to have a special reason to occupy a point in the road. None of us liked it much, but rulz is rulz. It was kinda fun sometimes trying to figure out how to perform the survey without occupying a corner in the road.

I'm glad those days are pretty much gone. On the few occasions I can think of in the last twenty years that I've ever had a man and instrument in the road I also had a flagman out there with him. I won't even send a one man crew out if it involves locating corners in the road...minimum two man job. Safety first.

Most times in the U.S. if you hit someone or something with your car, you are at fault. The driver must maintain control of his vehicle.

Priority and liability are two different things.

If a person crosses out of a crosswalk, the fact that traffic might have "priority", doesn't mean that open season has been declared.

Those lanes are awfully wide, but a single cone in each lane doesn't cut it either.

I would say two clone for each $1000 dollar value... tongue in cheek.

Actually, I once had a similar situation ... wide road, but on the incline of a hill.

No one needed to do anything except not "hug", the SOLID yellow line.

Anyway, I began with cones about 150-200 feet away and actually set the farthest cone(small cone) a foot+ into the other lane to help "guide", traffic, then increased the cone size until I passed my equipment.

Well ... it wasn't lone before some little ole lady came(up the hill), and proceeded to go left of center at the first cone(which was 1-1/2 feet into the other lane), totally ignore the fact that the cones alignment was set to "guide", her up the hill in her own lane and proceeded to traverse the entire hill(a blind hill), completely left of center.

Thankfully, no problem with traffic, but, since then, my "faith", in drivers to have a single scintilla of realistic concept of what to do went completely away.

When people see cones, they seem to panic, act stupid and sometime like hitting cones(while forgetting the planted tripod foot next to the cone).

YOU... ME... and everyone else cannot trust drivers to know what to do, no matter how simple the task is.

> Most times in the U.S. if you hit someone or something with your car, you are at fault. The driver must maintain control of his vehicle.

That is on the assumption that everything is normal. There are street signs, visibility & ROW priority of involved parties.

In this case there were only cones ( only 2 at that too). The GPS is not supposed to be there in the first place.

In my company, HSE procedures would never agree to put equipment & crew in the middle of the road for long periods of time. A sideshot of centerline would be OK for a few seconds on a busy road but not for 30 minutes or more.

I think you need to read on your HSE procedures.

I am still puzzled why did the surveyor not put the control on the sidewalk & took a sideshot of the point with a total station?

> I am still puzzled why did the surveyor not put the control on the sidewalk & took a sideshot of the point with a total station?

My guess: because they'd have to set 3 points with the GPS in order to get a backsight and a check point, instead of a single GPS shot on the centerline mark.

About the only time I set up on centerline control is when it's the radius point of a quiet residential cul-de-sac. I just don't want to expose the equipment and personnel to the traffic hazard.

I need to get a grant to study "orange cone-itis". Put one cone in the middle of the intersection and sit back on the side of the road and watch. Some days 50% of the people will go around on on the wrong side. The closest calls I've had or seen were when we had all signs and cones out according to ODOT code.

We had signs and cones streched out for 4 blocks and still lost an instrument to a lady who just freaked out...sensory overload. Almost got the I-man who was standing next to the instrument, looking the other way taking the shot. If the rodman hadn't yelled at him he'd got smashed too.