Indiana: Safety for workers on road just as vital in city

Along the interstate, signs warn motorists that fines are doubled if they are caught speeding in a construction zone. More signs warn that you can get up to eight years in jail if you hit a worker.

And when a highway worker is hit, it makes the news. But Kim Neal, who does road work, wishes there were as much emphasis on the safety of workers when they’re working on city streets. Neal works for a company that patches roads when the city has to dig up streets to repair broken water mains. Neal works on main drags and narrow residential streets and said he’s had close calls.

On residential streets, there isn’t much room for cars to get over. But it doesn’t matter to some drivers. People don’t slow down, Neal says. They blow by going 40 or 50 miles an hour sometimes. He’s had cars come within inches of him and had drivers threaten him when he signals for them to slow down. Last June, though, Neal had more than a close call. He was part of a crew working in the far right lane on Maumee Avenue, along a stretch that was four lanes. The crew used an arrow board, a big lighted sign on a trailer with a flashing arrow warning motorists to get over. They had orange cones in the road to mark off their work area.

A driver approached the worksite, but rather than pulling over, crashed right into the big sign with the flashing arrow, shoving the trailer into Neal and shoving him under the pickup truck that pulled the sign.

The car that hit the sign and the pickup it hit were both totaled. An accident report makes no mention of any charges filed against the driver.

Neal, who said he remembers little of what happened, suffered a broken leg, a damaged foot, and back and neck injuries. As he was dragged along the ground the skin was ground off the top of his head and part of his face. He suffered a large cut to the side of his head, a broken nose and had some teeth knocked out. He also developed a blood clot in his leg as a result of the accident.

Nine months later he’s back at work, but doctors still ­haven’t looked at his back and neck, which he says begin to ache after just a few minutes on his feet.

These days he works as a flagger, the guy who signals to traffic to slow down and get over.

Neal has always been a truck diver, but can’t drive a truck right now. He was due to have a physical last July to have his commercial driver’s license renewed, but because of his injuries he couldn’t take the physical. So now his commercial driver’s license is suspended.

Earlier this month, a worker putting out big orange traffic control barrels in a work zone along Interstate 469 was struck by a passing pickup. It made the news. The driver who allegedly hit him, who had left the scene, was later arrested.

But in Neal’s case, his accident never made the news. It was as though it didn’t matter.

“What about the guys risking their lives in Fort Wayne,” he asks. “People don’t care. They just want to be the first one through.”