8 Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch Be Responsible on the Highways By Gregg Dal Ponte, OTA’s Director of Regulatory Compliance REGULATORY COMPLIANCE IT’S ALMOST AXIOMATIC that as traffic counts and congestion continually increase on our highways so does the need for vigilance and proactive behaviors while driving with an enhanced awareness for vulnerable drivers or workers on or near the road surface. The kind of heightened awareness I am suggesting requires more than a cavalier attitude of routineness and more of purposeful effort to go above and beyond in attentiveness and in actions to prevent the tragic incidence of death and injury. Too often we have all been witness to the news coverage of a law enforcement officer struck at the roadside during a vehicle stop, a highway worker killed or grievously injured while performing their assigned road maintenance tasks, or a tow truck driver or emergency responder falling victim to a careless or unprepared driver while attempting render aid to others in distress. A significant infusion of federal dollars into Oregon will soon translate into a considerable escalation of highway construction and maintenance activities. This increase in construction activity will naturally create an increase in the number of work zones cropping up all over the state and in the number of construction and maintenance workers exposed to highway traffic. Navigating these potentially dangerous situations will require a coordinated effort from the workers themselves, the traffic engineers that design the work zone itself, drivers of all vehicles on the roadway and law enforcement officers who patrol the work zones in an effort to weed out misperforming drivers. It might not be generally known that each year FHWA provides funding to ODOT to support Work Zone Law Enforcement grants to Oregon law enforcement agencies to provide Work Zone Law Enforcement on highway construction projects. ODOT staff and the proposed law enforcement agency identifies Region construction projects needing enhanced levels of work zone law enforcement. The law enforcement agency is either the Oregon State Police (OSP) and/or local law enforcement agency(s). During construction, ODOT identifies safe zones for the deployment of law enforcement to be present in projects, while still maintaining a visual presence to motorists. ODOT works with the Contractor and law enforcement during construction to identify locations within the construction corridor where violators can be safely stopped and subjected to enforcement. The federal funds provided are also used to consider speed management alternatives and supplements to enforcement. These may include reduced speed limits by provision of speed reader trailers, rumble strips, and other temporary traffic control devices. Funding is also available for public information campaigns. Safety managers should incorporate work zone safety awareness in driver safety training meetings. OTA and its regulatory partners are available to attend driver safety meetings and share this message with drivers. Do everything you can to ensure one of your trucks is not seen by all passersby sitting alongside the highway in a construction zone being attended to by an OSP trooper. The Oregon State Legislature has also done its part to contribute to highway safety. Sometimes it is unfortunately not enough to hope that everyone utilizes common sense and good judgment when encountering vulnerable users on the highway. Oregon Revised Statute 811.147 is commonly referred to as the Oregon “Move Over Law.” 811.147 Failure to maintain safe distance from motor vehicle penalty. ` 1. A person operating a motor vehicle commits the offense of failure to maintain a safe distance from a motor vehicle if the person approaches a motor vehicle that is stopped and is displaying required warning lights or hazard lights, or a person is indicating distress by using emergency flares or posting emergency signs, and the person operating the motor vehicle: (A) On a highway having two or more lanes for traffic in a single direction, fails to: (a) Make a lane change to a lane not adjacent to that of the stopped motor vehicle; or
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Nzc3ODM=