Camping Day 1

Well camping day 1 didn't actually happen. I had to work last Thursday evening. The project that I am working on, a bridge in New Berlin on I-43, started Thursday night and into Friday evening. The contractor was paving new shoulders in preparation for moving the traffic over during the bridge construction. We started at 7:00 p.m. and they worked until 10:00 a.m. Friday. I got the first shift of working 7:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. A lot of people tell me that my job is pretty easy and dangerous is probably one of the last words you would use to describe it. The operation the contractor had going on was, to mill the existing asphalt shoulder and the repave that same shoulder with asphalt. I spent most of my time going back and forth between the milling crew and the paving crew. For this work we had the outside shoulder and outside lane of traffic closed with traffic drums spaced 50 feet apart through the entire construction zone. This left just one lane for through traffic. At around 2:30 a.m. a drunk driver attempted to pass a dump truck that was in the driving lane by using the outside lane which was closed off to traffic. When this driver switched lanes she ran directly into the back of a dump truck that was parked on a bridge with 10 tons of asphalt, at approximately 60 miles an hour. The dump truck didn't move an inch, in fact the car bounced back about 10 feet. I am amazed that the driver walked away with out any injuries. Here is the car.

Dump Truck 1 - Ford Focus 0. Once the police were on the scene, an ambulance was also called in. After the drive was checked out, she was given a field sobriety test, which I witnessed with another 15 or so people. The driver failed with flying colors and they slapped the cuffs on her. I was going to take a picture but decided against it. While on the job that night/morning, I probably walked over that bridge 15 - 20 times and very easily could have been walking there when the accident happened. Makes you think.