3/18/2015
Reed Hollinshead
ITD Communication
208-334-8881
reed.hollinshead@itd.idaho.gov
Monk’s life-altering experience underlines importance of work-zone safety
IDAHO FALLS - Troy Monk believes in safety. He believes drivers must pay attention, particularly in highway construction zones. It is a belief forged by a frightening late-August day decades ago that nearly cost him his life.
Monk’s story also coincides with National Work Zone Awareness Week, March 23-27.
Nationally, more than 700 people are killed and 37,000 injured each year in crashes in highway work zones.
There have been more than 2,000 crashes in Idaho work zones in the last five years (2009-2013), accounting for 11 fatalities. A total of five highway workers have been injured as a result. Nearly two decades ago, Troy Monk was one of those statistics.
Click here for Photo 1 and Photo 2 of Monk in the hospital after the crash.
Click here for picture of Monk today.
SEMINAL DAY
Monk was working on a project alongside traffic on U.S. 26 on Aug. 22, 1996.
“We were building a turnout between the Clark Hill rest area and the Hiese turnoff, and I was running the road grader. I began helping one of my co-workers learn to run the grader. After he got comfortable with the operation, I took over one end of the flagging operation,” Monk recalled.
On that day, he had seen several cars driving dangerously. “People get mesmerized out there,” he said. “They don’t pay attention.”
About an hour later, it happened.
1986 SAAB DRIVING AT 73 MPH
Monk, then a 31-year-old maintenance driver for the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) District 6 office in eastern Idaho, had just stopped a car on the highway to allow equipment to move in and out at the turnaround for maintenance trucks and equipment between Ririe and Swan Valley.
Just as he stepped off the road to allow the car to pass, another vehicle came into view. The police told Monk the college-age girl who was driving had been playing with her radio, looked up and saw the stationary vehicle in the road. She swerved off the road to avoid hitting the stopped car. She slammed into Monk instead.
THE IMPACT
The force of the impact knocked Monk out of his high-top tennis shoes. He was just a few feet from being a repeat victim. “Before she was able to stop, the driver almost ran back over me 68 feet from where I had been standing,” he said.
Although Monk didn’t lose consciousness, things got a little fuzzy. He thinks, but does not exactly know, if he was airborne for those 86 feet. He does, however, vividly recall a co-worker yelling, “Oh my God, he’s alive — he’s moving.”
He suffered a broken shoulder, crushed collarbone, broken left arm, and multiple fractures of his left leg. She hit Monk flush, shattering her windshield.
The only thing that likely saved Monk was the car’s design — it had a scooped-out front end, a feature of the older-model Saabs. “That’s one of the only reasons I am still alive,” Monk said. “It busted up my left side pretty badly. I have a permanent plate in my left arm, and a permanent rod through my left leg.”
Although “Road Work” and “Prepare to Stop” signs were posted, the driver who hit Monk later told police she never saw them.
Monk spent two weeks in the hospital and the next five months in a hospital bed at home. “It was over a year before I was out of a wheelchair, and didn’t need to use crutches or a cane,” Monk explained.
Monk and his wife had just adopted a baby girl. “I had to watch her take her first steps from that hospital bed,” he says wistfully. “That was the hardest part – not being able to play with her.”
When he returned to work in the summer of 1997, more difficult times awaited.
THE AFTERMATH
“The first time I was released to return to maintenance, I was put on flagging and a vehicle hit the brakes and slid…I almost passed out,” he recalled.
“Ever since this incident, safety is my priority,” explained Monk. “To this day on ALL my projects, safety is first. I always look for ways to make the work zone safer. Traffic control is very important.” Monk now works for the design-construction Team A in District 6.
Monk said he still thinks of that 1996 event often. “It was life-changing in many ways.” Life-changing, but not life-ending.
“I actually reference this event regularly when dealing with contractors,” said Monk. “They need to be able to prepare for any situation. And realize that their job is not as important as their life.”
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Safer driving means safer work zones. Not just safer for construction workers, but also safer for motorists.
The
person working behind the orange traffic cone is at risk, as is the
worker directing motorists with a “stop-go” traffic paddle — but so too
is the person behind the wheel, or the passenger behind the windshield.
In fact, 85 percent of those killed in work-zone crashes are motorists
or their passengers.
ITD
asks motorists to drive carefully through work zones. Each year, the
Federal Highway Administration, ITD and other state departments of
transportation draw special attention to safe driving in or near work
zones during Work Zone Awareness Week, held nationwide March 23-27. The
timing coincides with the start of construction season throughout the
U.S.
Click here to view the national YouTube video.
“We urge
drivers to give their full attention and use extreme caution when
passing through these areas so they can arrive at their destination
safely and construction workers can return home to their loved ones,”
said ITD Chief Deputy Scott Stokes.
Stokes encouraged a
common-sense approach to driving in work zones by offering drivers a few
simple questions to answer for themselves.
Ask yourself if you:
- Devote your full attention to driving — nothing is more important.
- Checked 511 to see if there will be construction or heavy equipment on your route, or a changed traffic pattern?
-
Drive at the proper speed limit and follow the directions of signs and
flaggers? Are you slowing down for gravel surfaces, especially if riding
a motorcycle?
- Buckled up, driving attentively, and avoiding distractions such as cell-phone use?
-
Are being patient with delays that may happen? Some projects may have
delays of up to 15 minutes, so consider adjusting your travel schedule
accordingly.
“Attentive driving in or near work zones will help
ensure the safety of drivers, passengers and construction workers,”
Stokes added.