According to one public official it's the most dangerous job in America, yet every day most of us drive by those who perform it without giving them a second thought.
Hundreds of road workers nationwide are injured or lose their lives every year while improving the infrastructure of our highways.
Every year in April, Caltrans takes a day to memorialize those workers who have lost their lives.
With a slow, sorrowful bugle playing Taps in the background, an all-volunteer Caltrans honor guard slowly passes a single orange cone from white-gloved hand to white-gloved hand until it is reverently placed at the bottom of a huge cone formation laid out on the pavement in the shape of a caution sign.
Each cone bears the name of one of the 170 Caltrans workers who have died on the job since 1924.
Four cones were added this year; one for each of the three Caltrans workers who lost their lives in 2007 and another to honor all of the remaining workers.
Those who choose to work to maintain our roads are not only subject to injury and death from errant drivers, they are also subjected to verbal abuse, gunshots, paintballs and knife attacks.
Alan Lowenthal, chairman for the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, has proposed Senate Bill 1509 which, if passed, will increase the fines and jail time for anyone who perpetrates an assault or battery against a Caltrans worker. If the proposed bill passes, the fines for injuring a Caltrans worker will range from $2,000 to $5,000.
The danger to road workers can also come in the form of careless co-workers.
Dan Broeske was a veteran highway worker who died instantly after he was crushed under the wheels of a dump truck, when a contract worker assigned to direct construction traffic turned his back to answer a personal call on his cell phone.
Broeske's widow, Patsy, has made it her mission to see that no other family faces such a senseless loss. Her "no phone in the cone zone" initiative calls for much stricter rules for cell phone use by road workers and is scheduled to be implemented by Caltrans in the near future.
When the roads are smooth and free from potholes, we don't think twice about them.
When a new freeway branch opens that gets us to our destinations just that much faster; it doesn't take long before we take it for granted.
Don't "slow in the cone zone" because you want to avoid the doubled fine.
Slow because someone's life may depend on it.
Michelle Pearl is a longtime traffic-school instructor and the owner of InterActive Traffic School Online, www.trafficinteractive.com. Send questions to drivetime@dailybulletin.com or write to DriveTime, c/o the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, PO Box 4000, Ontario, CA 91761. Some reader questions will be answered in print.
