Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The Oregon public employe. (Salem, Oregon) 1981-???? | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1994)
Workers face death and injury on O k highway jobs Most of us are told by our parents not to be in the streets. For many Department of Transportation employees that’s part of their jobs — a dangerous part. The death of Tony Collier, 26, a resident of Keizer and a mem ber of the Association of Engineer ing Employees, and the severe in jury of Mike Salisbury, of Scappoose, an OPEU member who works out of the North Portland maintenance yard, bring this home again. MEMBER INJURED Salisbury, who is still in the hospital with head injuries, two broken legs, and a broken arm, was called back to work on a day off, the Memorial Day holiday this year, to remove pallets that had fallen off a truck traveling south on Interstate 5 in Portland. According to OPEU Shop Steward Jim McNamee, Salisbury was hit by a truck that didn’t have the room it needed to maneuver to avoid hitting either Salisbury or one of the pallets. The truck that hit Salisbury was following a larger truck. “The driver had few choices,” said McNamee. “It couldn’t go left be cause there was a pallet in the road, so it maneuvered right and there was Mike.” FREEWAYS DANGER OUS - The freeways are especially dangerous, said McNamee. “You’re never able to take your eye off the traffic as the vehicles go by at 55-60 miles per hour.” Collier was killed in the north bound lane of Interstate 5 about two miles north of Gold Hill while working on a survey crew. His work de manded that he straddle the white line, known as the fog line, with his back to the oncoming traffic on the right side of the road. The driver who hit Collier was cited for careless driv ing, which carries a maximum fine of $470, since there is no evi dence the driver was speeding, weaving across the roadway, OPEU member Mike Salisbury was injured badly driving on Memorial Day working on 1*5. drunk, or otherwise creating a ODOT began its “Give ‘Em hazard, which would a Brake” campaign in 1989 to edu be necessary for a more cate drivers about the importance of serious charge of driving carefully through construc criminally negligent tion zones. Between 1986 and 1993, homicide. the state has averaged 11 to 12 deaths Getting driv per year from traffic accidents in ers to slow down and construction zones, with a peak of pay special attention 16 in 1989. Those numbers include toconstruction zones deaths of motorists and pedestrians, or workers working in the road as well as construction workers. way has always been an uphill To combat the problem of battle, workers say. deaths and injuries to highway work ers, ODOT will examine the cir cumstances around Collier’s death and Salisbury’s injury, try to draw some conclusions from, them and develop some policy and training programs. “We’re not taking this lightly,” said Dave White, manage ment of ODOT’s safety and em ployee services section. DANGER PERSISTS - Still, the problem of danger on the highways for workers persists. As this article was being prepared a flagger, an employee of an ODOT contractor, was run over by some one on a motorcycle. ODOT work ers tell of aggressive action taken against them by motorists. At the worksite on Highway 217 west of Portland, a flagger was punched by a motorist. The first recorded fatal ity of a maintenance flagger for which records still are available occurred in 1939 in the vicinity of Cascade Locks. Since then, there have been 61 more. The workers are in a bit of a bind: They can’t work scared because they can’t work effi ciently that way. But, they can’t let their guard down. There is a danger of becoming complacent as you become accustomed to a life of work with cars whizzing by at 55-60 miles per hour. 7 workers find ways to save $900,000 a year „ Seven state employees f - four of them OPEU/SEIU Local 503 members — were honored recently for suggestions which could achieve first-year savings of nearly $900,000. Employees who submit sug gestions with verified cost reduction receive a cash award of 5% to 10% of the first-year savings up to $5,000. The program has generated a combined first-year savings of al most $12 million since its initiation in 1980. • Welfare Office Worker Local 461 Bob LeDoux and a co worker, both budget analysts, share the award for the largest savings, $292,500. Their idea is to recom- mend better checking of client medi cal claims to obtain federal match ing dollars, offsetting state expense. • Consumer and Business Services Local 440 activist Judy Sugnet, an OrOSHA resource cen ter coordinator, suggested eliminat ing publication and distribution of rule changes which duplicate fed eral regulations for a savings of $228,011. • Administrative Services Local 125 member Bettie Lou Cline, a motor pool automotive mechanic, showed that the motor pool could extend maintenance schedules with out damaging vehicles, compromis ing safety, or violating warranties for a first-year savings of $ 190,000. • Justice Local 137 member Kelly Tremaine, a child support agent, found that parents owing child support could be located through Fish and Wildlife licensing records and save $50,000. • A State Police telecommu nications maintenance worker sug gested that employees construct 17 small utility buildings as part of regu lar duties in lieu of contracting out the work and save $69,000. • A Forestry Department map inventory planning assistant devised a method of converting data into a form usable by a high-tech mapping process, saving $59,540. 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