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From the Locator’s
By Bob Nighwonger DUtility Training Academy
uring a training event a few years ago, a water line locator in the class told us all a bone-chilling survival
story. He had been hit in the back by a small SUV and became wedged beneath the vehicle. In a moment of panic, the driver dragged him for a little over 150 feet while slowing down and speeding up twice in attempts to shake him
from beneath her vehicle before finally coming to a stop.
As a line locator by trade, I was frequently faced with potentially hazardous conditions as part of my daily routine. Unlike the movie character Austin Powers, “Danger” should not be your middle name when locating and marking buried lines. I speak from personal experience when
I say there is literally danger around every corner when marking lines buried beneath busy roadways. I have never felt more in harm’s way then when I had to mark lines on the road. The level of inattention we have driving on our roads has never failed to amaze. I wanted to take this opportunity to share a few tips I’ve learned along the way for marking lines buried beneath, beside or crossing busy roadways.
Pick a best time to mark in traffic. It has been my experience that during a normal workday, traffic is considerably lighter between the hours of 9am to 11am and from 1:30 to 2:30pm. If you have a job that involves marking on a busy road, I suggest trying to schedule it between those hours.
Make yourself as visible as possible. Use your PPE to make yourself visible.
Use your traffic cones, flashers, beacon lights and whatever else you have available to safely merge traffic around your work area when locating along the
behind his truck to merge traffic to the middle lane so he could mark
his water line in the outside lane. He was in front marking the lines. In this case, when the SUV passed his truck and cones the driver merged back into the outside lane and hit the locator.
Keep traffic in front of you. As the saying goes, you want to keep your enemies in front of you. In this case, any person behind the wheel with their smart phones in hand, posting a selfie, sending a text, email or even watching a movie while driving is your enemy. In the past we worried about drivers talking on the phone but with today’s technology, it seems to be one of the lesser evils.
Don’t take your eye off the ball. You may also want to consider getting
a paint stick that will allow you to remain upright when tracing and marking lines in the road. If you’re forced to bend over with a can of paint in your hand to mark the line, you are taking your eyes off the traffic and some locators call this spraying and praying. If you have to bend over to paint and turn away from traffic, consider getting a fellow employee onsite to be your traffic spotter and watch your back.
Your best safety tools are your eyes and your brain when working in the roadway. Always keep an eye out for crazy drivers and never underestimate the level of inattention that could be behind the wheel.
Make safety your first priority.
road. In the survival story above, the locator told us he made the mistake of only using 3 cones placed beside and
2024, Issue 2 Alabama 811 • 19