Roulette on the road
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 03:21 p.m., September 18, 2007
Updated 03:21 p.m., September 18, 2007
THE DEATHS last week of Tyrone Korte and Rolland Griffith, who were working at a highway project south of Lawrence, reminded people once again the dangers faced daily by the people who build and maintain the roads of Kansas. The deaths were also a reminder of the responsibility of all drivers for the safety of others, and the terrible consequences of shirking that responsibility.
The two women suspected of running the men down are sitting in jail, their bond set at a total of $3 million. They are expected to face serious criminal charges in the case.
Korte’s death has a special resonance in Emporia. The Kansas Department of Transportation employee was a 2001 graduate of Emporia State University and had friends in town. Just two years ago, Emporian Richard Cunningham, another KDOT worker, was killed while working along Kansas Highway 130 near Hartford.
Highway work is dangerous enough when drivers obey the speed limits in work zones. When an accident does happen, a bright orange vest provides no protection at all against a couple of tons of steel, even if the vehicle is moving at 45 mph instead of 60 mph or 70 mph.
When drivers do not observe the work-zone speed limits, the danger level goes up fast. Drivers and workers have less time to react and even a moment’s inattention is too much.
Can anything be done to make work zones safer? Increased fines for violations have helped, but some people still ignore the work-zone signs. Safety vests for workers make them easier to see, but a driver who is sufficiently distracted could miss a UFO landing on the road ahead, let alone a few people wearing bright clothing.
Perhaps it is time to develop portable crash barriers sturdy enough to protect the workers behind them and bring a vehicle to a stop without too much danger to the people in the vehicle.
As the deaths of Tyrone Korte, Roland Griffith and Richard Cunningham have made clear, leaving the safety of highway workers solely in the care of the millions of drivers on American roads is, in the end, just a game of Russian roulette.