The following scenario is just one of many that have occurred to MDOT employees,
which could have had disastrous results if the worker had taken just one more step.
[music]
Jim Gaus: What kind of day was it that you had?
Charlie Heidt: It was a day similar to today.
We were out here AMZ-ing. There was four of us out here.
We had a crash truck parked here, we had our AMZ machine here.
We had another guy working on the center line blowing out our cracks,
cleaning them up, getting them ready.
Got on the AMZ machine, adjusted the pressures,
came back, talked to Greg. We were working out by the center line.
While we were there discussing and looking at it, a car came through our zone.
We got hit by the car. Greg got hit first, took a mirror cross behind.
Car caught me on the side of the leg, pushed me forward.
Threw my hand back, and then ended up finishing taking the mirror off.
He went up the road probably a couple hundred feet before he hit his brakes, locked them up,
went back through our work zone, and then flipped his car into the ditch.
We went over, checked him out. Pulled the cable off the battery,
the horn was going. You could smell fuel.
The other two guys that were with us pulled him out.
Greg and I had walked back up to where we got hit.
A lady stopped and was talking to us, and she said she was doing 75-80
because she seen him coming up behind her and he was all over the road,
so she did want him to pass her.
But he still made it around her.
We looked down our cones and we could see where he weaved in and out through our zone,
and we happened to be in the weave mark.
Jim Gaus: He was going full blast? Full speed,
70 or better all the way into it?
You didn't hear him coming?
Charlie Heidt: Never heard a thing. We've got our ear plugs on,
we got the AMZ machine running. And you can't really see too much with the attenuator truck behind you.
Jim Gaus: No screeching of brakes, he didn't slow up?
Charlie Heidt: Never touched his brakes until after he got by us.
Jim Gaus: Now, you said they hit Greg first, but Greg was back to work...
Charlie Heidt: The next day.
Jim Gaus: Very fortunate, but you ended up with a...
Charlie Heidt: Broken hand. I was off for four months.
The accident happened on May 18. I remember that because my daughter was 11 days old,
she was born on May 7.
Could have been totally different. She could have grown up without her dad,
and I never would have got to see her.
Jim Gaus: If you had been one step one way or the other...
Charlie Heidt: It wouldn't even had to been a step.
I mean, he hit me right here, so it was right on the backside of my leg that pushed me forward,
An inch could have been straight on to my leg,
and threw me in to the AMZ machine, over his car, or whatever.
It all turned out very well for the circumstances of what happened.
Jim Gaus: One of the things you mentioned earlier was how you reacted
for awhile after that event.
Charlie Heidt: It's difficult to get back into working in traffic after that happened.
I remember one circumstance, we were out working on a job
and a bus came by and you could just see the glare off the windows as it went by and
it makes you jump. You definitely get a little more in tune to what's going on around you.
But if you do have that split second where you're not,
and you don't see it coming and you get that glimpse, it'll make you jump.
Jim Gaus: Did it take you awhile to settle back down as it were,
or are you still not quite used to it? You never should get used to it.
Charlie Heidt: It took me probably three months before I was comfortable again
being out in the work zone.
I pay a lot more attention and I watch our guys a lot more when I go through work zones.
Our newer guys, if I catch them, or even our more experienced guys,
catch them out by center line for no apparent reason,
or watching something, I let them know, watch yourself.
These guys aren't watching for you. Traffic, they're texting. Could be drunk.
You never know.
Jim Gaus: Now, what about the driver? He was weaving in and out.
Charlie Heidt: He was drunk. He blew, I believe it was a .23 alcohol level at 10 in the morning.
Open Jack Daniels bottle in the car.
He was coming back from a party and didn't quite finish, I guess
So you never know when they're drunk, it's not just at night.
10 o'clock in the morning you wouldn't expect someone to be that obliterated.
Jim Gaus: Whereabouts did the guy end up when he came through it?
Charlie Heidt: He came through our zone, went down through the ditch,
rolled his car, and ended up right over here by these trees.
Jim Gaus: Anything happen to him, other than the fact that he blew obviously a .23?
Charlie Heidt: He ended up with a broken ankle out of the deal.
He was out of jail before I was back to work.
Jim Gaus: What do you think could have been done differently, maybe, that made a difference for that?
Charlie Heidt: We had our zone set up, like we do today, right on center line.
We were also AMZ-ing center line. We should have pushed them out,
pushed them onto the shoulder, moved our cones out a couple of feet.
I don't know if it would have made a difference,
it could have, though.
It slows them down when you push them over and they start hitting the rumble strip.
My recommendation would be to push them over.
Squeeze them down.
Jim Gaus: The other thought would have been to have an escape path.
Charlie Heidt: We couldn't hear them, we didn't see them.
We did have an escape path when we did get hit.
I mean, we could have ran between the vehicles and out into the ditch,
but we never heard nor seen them coming.
When you've got ear plugs in, you got an AMZ machine running,
you got an attenuator truck running behind you,
there isn't a whole lot that you can hear.
A few guys, the more they're out in the work zones the more they get used to it.
They just feel safe there until something happens.
Jim Gaus: A work zone separates the workers from the motorist.
A motorist intruding into the work zone could be disastrous for everyone.
Always look and listen.
Be especially alert when working near the center line.
Always have an escape path.
Never assume that all motorists are driving safely.