By Pepper Parr
July 4, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
It was just over a month ago when we reported that two city employees were struck by a car on Walkers Line while they were planting spring flowers and shrubs on the medians.
The police haven’t reported if charges were laid against the driver of the vehicle but we can say with some certainty that the city hasn’t done all it could to ensure the safety of these workers.
Workers planting flowers and doing maintenance work on the meridians of busy streets are not properly protected from passing traffic.
Three woman who were doing planting and cleaning up of a meridian on Brant Street just north of Caroline were at some risk from passing traffic.
There were bright red lane marking cones on the roadway and the employees were wearing brightly coloured vests – but they were at some risk.
Scan the pictures below for yourself – were those woman as safe as you would want your children to be?
If people are going to work on streets that have heavy traffic there should be people with signs ensuring that oncoming traffic is fully aware that there are people who are very close to the ground and might not be easily visible who are making our city attractive.
Hoe close to these workers is that car going to get and do the woman know the car is approaching?
Would you put your children in this kind of a working situation?
The sight of bright plants making the city look beautiful isn’t worth another person being injured. I shuddered as I took the pictures – especially of that woman who had her leg stretched to keep her balance.
How far out into the traffic lane is that left leg going to stretch? Far enough for a car to run over it?
Are the commentators not confusing what happened at walkers line and Dundas with the best incident?
It seems to me the City brushed both under the rug. No news updates have been offered on either incident.
Mind you the City hardly offers any updates, disclaimers or public apologies.
They want your cash and dare not ask questions.
.
The City is not required to release names for confidentiality reasons. Did you get permission to publish the pictures of these employees above, from them?
Proof that it was three workers… and here you are always harping on the city’s media relations. Maybe you should also do some fact checking because the two that were seriously injured weren’t women.
https://www.burlington.ca/en/Modules/News/index.aspx?keyword=&date=05/01/2015&page=3&newsId=156cbfea-f8b4-450e-8756-976e68823511
Thanks for the update – the city never did release the names of those who were injured – and while interesting does it really make a difference if it was men or women who were injured – the fact is that employees are put at risk – when it is quite simple to take preventative measures.
In the pictures I only see one cone but perhaps there were others not in the picture. From what I can see the cone is not effectively placed. I will have to check with my boyfriend when he gets home. He is a former highway patrolman and still has all his certifications. I myself am a former flag person for road construction and I really don’t think this setup is correct. I would not feel safe. I would suggest barrels instead of cones placed farther out on the street and I believe there are minimum lengths for which cones or barrels must be placed and this does not seem to meet those requirements. Also a flag person. One should be sufficient.
Hopefully the driver got prosecuted. On the other side of the coin, I ‘m sure the editor will be the first to complain if we are paying for 3 versus two workers.
Editor’s note: You misread your editor.
And it was 3 workers struck and injured, not 2 as you reported.
Editor’s note:
Our understanding was that there were three workers with just two hit and injured – but we weren’t on the site and went with the police report.
You really have no clue,do you Pepper, The City puts all student workers through 2 solid days of safety training, in the operation of equipment,MTO Book 7 work zone road set-ups, WHIMIS and Drivers Road tests, even before they take to the streets.
The work zone on Walkers Line ,where the accident occurred, was signed and marked in excess to MTO minimum standards.
The City takes worker safety extremely seriously,I know after working on City streets for over 30 years, my biggest fear was some idiot not paying full attention and taking out my crew and vehicle.
Unfortunately there will always be some risk when working on the streets, because a segment of the motoring public don`t care and the crew is inconveniencing them.
To them I say, slow down and “Give em a brake”
Editor’s note: There will always be careless drivers. Hiring additional people with signs to stand on the road and warn traffic is not too much to ask. The province does it on their highways. You can’t fluff all this off on poor drivers.