Highway Construction Zone Safety 101

With large road and highway construction projects scattered around the Metro Vancouver area, construction zone safety has become a very great concern. As early as 2007, spikes in the number of collisions on Lower Mainland roads involving traffic control construction flag personnel had gotten the attention of some in the media and the government, enough to spark a large scale advertising campaign by Worksafe BC involving large high visibility signs at large road construction sites profiling many BC families who have members in the road construction industry.

There is much more road construction going on today in the Greater Vancouver area and construction zone safety is more important than it ever was before. With huge projects stretching virtually from Langley to Whistler, drivers need to pay close attention and adhere to some common sense rules to avoid involvement in dangerous construction-zone crashes and incidents.

Here are some of the things that you as a driver can do to minimize the dangers of driving through a road construction area;

1. Reduce your speed
2. Always obey traffic control personnel (flag persons)
   
3. Keep plenty of space around your vehicle, so that you can manoeuvre if you need to - most importantly, leave considerable following distance
   
4. Keep your eyes scanning well ahead of you and to the sides of the road for approaching hazards
5. Use extra caution around construction equipment - machine operators have 2 jobs to do when they have to watch traffic as well as perform other duties

Using extra caution when driving through these hazardous areas is a must. Check radio traffic reports frequently and avoid areas where there is heavy congestion due to construction. Plan alternative routes to avoid these areas whenever possible. Not driving through a construction zone is probably the safest way to navigate it :)

Heavy Rain, Flooding and Hydroplaning...

We're into much more typical Vancouver weather this early January. The new year has brought us heavy rains that any Vancouverite should be familiar with. With the heavy rains come widespread flooding and with the flooding comes road closures and the possibility of dangerous tire hydroplaning.

Tire hydroplaning occurs (see diagram top left) when your tire(s) lose contact with the road surface due to riding up on a cushion of standing water. When this happens, you lose that tire's ability to control the car with the normal friction vs. road surface that you are accustomed to. Naturally, it's more common for your front tires to hydroplane as the front is the part of the car that hits any puddle first, but you can of course hydroplane with your rear tires as well.

When your front tires start to hydroplane, you will most likely lose steering control momentarily. The safest thing to do when you find yourself in this position is to hold the wheel firmly and wait for the hydroplaning to stop (usually only a split second or so) and be prepared for a jerk or pulling sensation on the wheel when you start to get friction with the road surface once more. Avoid the urge to jerk the wheel left or right or to brake until you feel your vehicle once again in contact with the road surface.

Hydroplaning will be affected by the following factors; tire condition (how much tread remains - more tread reduces the risk of hydroplaning,) water depth (the deeper the water, the greater your chance of hydroplaning,) relative tire width (the wider the tires, the greater the chance of hydroplaning) and finally and most crucially, your vehicle's speed (the greater your speed, the greater the risk of hydroplaning.) If you find your vehicle hydroplaning, reduce your speed to alleviate the problem.