Vancouver Police to step up enforcement ahead yearly Cone Zone campaign
Posted May 14, 2017 4:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Heads-up, drivers. Vancouver Police are stepping up enforcement on Monday morning along a busy traffic route downtown where roadside workers run the risk of injury, as part of their annual “Cone Zone” campaign. During the blitz, officer will be checking for cell-phone use, driving without due care and attention, speeding, and aggressive driving.
A flagger is speaking out about the inherent dangers of the job. “The public needs to remember, flaggers do not create the construction,” says Diane Herback with the BC Flagging Association.
She admits flaggers are often the target of abuse by drivers frustrated by construction-related delays. “It’s a gong show! It’s getting worse and worse and worse,” she explains. “I’ve been doing this 30 years and all I can tell you is every year it gets worse and worse and worse.”
Herback says despite public awareness campaigns, increased fines, and other measures, people still don’t get the message. “But I don’t know what more we can do other than have spike belts or police in our zones every day.”
Roadside workers not only include flaggers, but landscapers, municipal workers, first responders, telecommunications workers, construction and maintenance workers, and tow-truck operators too. Between 2007 and last year, 15 roadside workers were killed in BC and 229 were injured and missed time from work as a result of being hit by a motor vehicle while working in a Cone Zone.
