Car crashes on the job!

We had one many years ago on a highway reconstruction.
A flat tray truck laden with I beams hit a soft spot and bogged down in the soft gravel.
Poor driver didn't stand a chance.
The load kept going when the truck suddenly stopped.
He was only going very slowly.

I had a crew surveying a road for the location of a water main. A young (teen aged) young lady topped the hill going too fast, saw the crew. and locked up the brakes. The crew saw what was happening and took to the woods. She spun a couple of times an slid to a stop about opposite the crew. The oldest fellow on the crew (+/- 70's) took off through the woods. Mr. Dobbins was smart, he was getting as far away from the scene as possible.
Andy

I was on an urban interstate job a few years back. We were removing a 40' grass median down the middle and replacing it with more lanes and median barriers. We also had a mess of storm pipe that had to go in first. One Monday morning we found our storm sewer excavation full of water from weekend rains. One dumbass (in charge) decided rather than send someone back to yard for more hose, he pumped the rainwater out onto the driving lanes in morning rush hour. The ensuing pile up cost an elderly couple and a sixteen year old girl their lives.

I didn't know if I wanted to throw his ass out in traffic or quit my job...or both. I didn't take long for me to figure out what to do. The company became embroiled in a huge lawsuit and the dumbass super tried to throw a couple of manos from the crew under the bus by saying they took it upon themselves to dump the mess out onto the driving lanes. I got my satisfaction by telling the truth at the depositions. I wasn't a popular fella, but the truth is the truth.

No highway job is important enough to endanger the public.

We were gathered in a motel parking lot in San Angelo, Texas having a meeting with the field crews one late afternoon. We hear a crash and look up to see a t-bone accident between a Dodge Durango and an Escalade. The driver of the Dodge was an elderly guy and he was knocked unconscious with his foot coming to rest on the accelerator. He came flying by us within about 30 feet burning rubber the entire time. So he flies past us and crashed right into the side of the motel. The driver of the Escalade thought the other guy was trying to leave the scene and had started chasing him. He had his mind made up that he was going to catch the guy and came barreling past us. Once he realized what the reality of the situation was, he calmed down and helped with first aid.
Everybody turned out fine in the end.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

Not the worst accident that I've seen on a work site, but... Warning: It is illegal to be using your cell phone in a construction zone...

Surveying for a rural bridge replacement. Old steel decked bridge. Set up total station behind the quardrail about 50' from the bridge. Cold morning. Freezing fog. Several cars come by at full speed no problem. Finally a car comes by and by now the steel deck had frozen. Car loses it on bridge, spins, and hits the guardrail DIRECTLY in front of me and the instrument at approx 30 mph. Bounces off guardrail and leaves roadway embankment coming to rest on side in the woods. Bumper of car, guardrail, my legs - 24" max. Instrument and I unharmed.

Before I could really even process what had just happened, the next vehicle met the same fate. I grab instrument and run. I believe there were 4 cars wrecked in 10 minutes before we got someone posted each side of the bridge to warn everyone.

CB

While working in a field adjacent to I-5 in Sacramento I heard the squeal of tires and looked over just in time to see a white Corvette sailing through the air upside-down about 6 feet above the ground. The car landed on its roof and came to a stop. The driver got out, looked at his crushed 'Vette and said, "My ride!"

Close one for me a while back. I was setting out my cones to protect the back sight when a young gal came flying over the hill in her Trans Am. The road had no real ditch so she came through pretty close to me. So close that I had tire tracks on my pants. She said she was doing 50, I think more like 60. I got some bruising on the thigh and calf but no broken skin. It didn't really register at first. I had several extra strength cocktails that evening.

Back in 1980 or so, construction of the interchange of the Merritt Parkway and Route 25 in Trumbull CT, involving one of those big 200 ton Euclid dump trucks.

It was like a slow motion nightmare.

We were working at the bottom of a curving bridge approach on an embankment when one of those monsters came rolling over the bridge and down the hill in our general direction.

The embankment had just recently been filled to meet subgrade for the ramp approaching the recently completed bridge desk, and they were using the ramp to haul fill. He had a full load of gravel headed over to a spot past where we were set up.

He was going a little fast when suddenly, the embankment under the driver side wheels slightly gave way, and he started tipping over. As he kept going, the truck tipped onto it's side and slid down the side of the embankment.

It came to rest on the drivers side, and he slowly was able to climb up and out the passenger side window, more or less unhurt, but severely embarrassed..

We were never in any danger, unless the thing started flipping and rolling, but we had a great view........to bad there were no cell phone cameras back then.

AJF

A lady in a huge Cadillac ran a red light turning left, got t-boned by a classic Beetle which swerved her within a few feet of me then she went between two signal poles on the corner, missing them each by inches and into the iceplant whereupon she gunned it and bogged down. Amazingly no one was hurt except the Beetle driver had a gash where he hit the windshield. He was upset because he had just finished restoring the car after the last accident (also not his fault).

Collecting topo in an intersection, I saw an old blue haired woman in an early '70's Cadillac swing too wide making a left turn, jumped the curb and ran straight up a very sturdy power pole guy anchor. All four wheels were in the air, car resting neatly on the rear bumper at about a 40 degree angle. I could see her alternating between drive and reverse trying to get back off of the wire.

No one hurt and car and pole seemed to be fine. Blue hair was fine.

JA, PLS SoCal

I had the robot set up in the middle of a 4' sidewalk; we were getting ready to set some stakes on a small construction site. I spot a blind guy walking at a quick pace, right for the set-up. Luckily, I was standing right there and alerted him to what was going on. He was startled and seemed a little irritated. I apologized and offered my arm to help him around the tripod.

I had a crew member get hit by a car, cleaning out a mon case in the middle of a cul-de-sac. This lady backed right out of her driveway without even looking...

[MEDIA=youtube]T2QApwtE8zQ[/MEDIA]

I'm not observant enough, or don't recover well from surprises, because I can't match those detailed accounts.

I've been at the scene in my car on a couple occasions when a major collision took place in the intersection ahead. In one case a smashed car came to rest 10 feet from us. I never know how it happened. I hear the crash and focus on what's still moving, but I can't tell you which direction everyone was headed before the collision or who ran a light. I didn't need to know where everyone was before the crash if I wasn't moving. I'd be totally incompetent as a witness to any event, I guess.

Here's what's left of one of the victims after a kiss, crash and burn episode in a construction zone. A useless pile of steamy junk...

Jerry Attrick, post: 406623, member: 1585 wrote: Collecting topo in an intersection, I saw an old blue haired woman in an early '70's Cadillac swing too wide making a left turn, jumped the curb and ran straight up a very sturdy power pole guy anchor. All four wheels were in the air, car resting neatly on the rear bumper at about a 40 degree angle. I could see her alternating between drive and reverse trying to get back off of the wire.

No one hurt and car and pole seemed to be fine. Blue hair was fine.

JA, PLS SoCal

Been there with the little old blue hair lady who can't see over the dashboard about 25 years ago.
I was a field coordinator/inspector on a major drainage study. The crew was popping manholes and sizing pipes and measuring inverts in a subdivision with no traffic present. I showed up and told them to put out sign,cones and have a flag man.
Don't know why...I guess just to reinforce what they should be doing.
As soon as the signs/cones were placed and the manhole popped, little blue hair lady in a land yacht came cruising slowly and hit the sign, started plowing the cones and almost clipped the flag man. She was heading straight for the manhole so we all started waving and screaming to stop. She didn't but just missed the opening by a foot.
She looked very irritated at us for some unknown reason.
I was relieved because of all the paperwork and reports it would have generated if she sunk her land yacht.

I had a field crew who had set up on a control point in a grass median near an intersection of a new subdivision. They had just completed their work and placed the total station back in the box when a fully loaded cement mixer came around the corner too fast and laid over on the truck, flattening the vehicle and its contents including the total station that the crew chief had just taken his hand off of. He stepped back enough and was not injured. I imagine they would have been killed if it had happened a few seconds later and they had gotten in the truck.

Set up with GPS on the shoulder early 1990's, not blocking any travel lanes, had signs and cones out, a car load of HS kids rear ended another car (not paying attention, regardless if we were there) just as we were breaking the setup down. I tell the crew, let's get out of here before we get blamed, the drivers were exchanging info as we drove off.

SHG

Shelby H. Griggs PLS, post: 406826, member: 335 wrote: Set up with GPS on the shoulder early 1990's, not blocking any travel lanes, had signs and cones out, a car load of HS kids rear ended another car (not paying attention, regardless if we were there) just as we were breaking the setup down. I tell the crew, let's get out of here before we get blamed, the drivers were exchanging info as we drove off.

SHG

There is (or should be) safety protocol to be followed when you've got vehicles and equipment parked near a roadway with a posted 45 mph or higher. When I worked highway construction ('80s) we found out real quick a truck with flashing yellows on the shoulder can cause a backup just from the rubber-neckers. When I worked for the highway department in the '90s we had protocol to stay as close to the R/W fence as we could and NEVER within 1000' of an intersection. The travelling public has a collective IQ of a damp rock.