Yeah, that surprised me too. I would expect the police to come by, turn on the lights on the hill, and then get the Comcast guy to clear out and tell their supervisor that they were told to clear out by the police in the interest in public safety. Then again, this is Indiana public services and their response seems to be to push things around more than find a solution; the local federal authority is taking on the case though.
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I’d question whether Comcast or anyone like that would have the legal ability to close down a road. I imagine it requires permits and planning.
So:
I know that those cops you see at construction sites doing that - they aren’t there in official capacity. Much like cops working security at Walmart or whatever, it is an after hours gig. The road construction company pays them to sit their with their lights on because it makes people slow down and pay attention faster and better than anything else, like concern for worker safety.
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Oh, so if Granny gets into an accident and calls 911, nobody will come to the scene and she has to fend for herself? Good to know.
The conclusion will be that the training procedures were at fault. The solution will be to retaliate against the worker, and institute new training procedures, with the understanding that following safety protocols is not an excuse for failing to meet your quota.
The lineman was in trouble from before the first accident. There was going to be either an accident of a prolonged outage, and either way, you know what rolls downhill.
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In my area (Western Mass), whenever you have a lane closure for utility work - electric, gas, cable, whatever - you always have a police officer at the site. That would have helped enormously in this case; after the first skid, the cop could have told the cable guy to stop working and reopen the lane.
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The last time that I wound up in a ditch in an ice storm was before the age of cell phones. I flagged down a snowplow, and the driver radioed for the troopers. It was about three hours before they arrived, because the cop who was dispatched ran into a ditch and had to be towed out. By the way, I was in the ditch because a semi in the other lane suddenly lost control and left me with only a choice of which accident to have. Anyway, in that sort of storm, it’s likely NOT to get a prompt response from the police.
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I was curious and looked it up, i didn’t find a definitive answer since i just did a quick look on Google but if i understand correctly the Indiana State Police has statewide authority on enforcing traffic laws and motor vehicle laws. Unlike other State Troopers that only have jurisdiction over Highways it seems that this road incident should be handled by the ISP.
Comcast?
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Indiana State Police 
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It’s kind of like what Southerns consider to be “snow”. 
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That’s one thing that really amazes me when I drive in New England: your police seem to be there to help public safety.
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I’d be somewhat surprised if the Comcast workers in the video are still employed by Comcast. Corporations care more about risk management than they do about workers completing work orders in the sequence dispatch issued them.
Not reporting back to dispatch that the conditions were too dangerous for completing that particular work order is the fault of the drivers. Not setting up a proper work zone is the fault of the drivers. OSHA regulations require a “responsible person” to be at the work zone, and that person has to be certified by OSHA as having successfully completed a sanctioned roadside safety course (an in-depth study of MUTCD Chapter 6 and practical application thereof) as evidenced by having passed the rather lengthy exam at the end of the training course. I’ve never been required to be certified, but I’ve been required to sit through the 16 hour course. When I elaborated on my initial comment, I wasn’t making suppositions.
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Don’t encourage them. Fortunately I have no personality to be tested, but the risk of summoning them isn’t worth it.
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I’d like comcast to train and equip their employees better too. But that costs money, and they don’t care.
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They’re gone no matter what, they are easily replaceable to the company’s eyes. There is no union to protect their job even if they followed their book. Also, everything you are saying is assuming these drivers were trained right to begin with and didn’t try to call it in only for their supervisor to tell them to do it anyways. OSHA reportables tend to come from a culture on non-compliance and not just rogue operators.
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Yup. Always blame the employee, never blame the policy.
It would not surprise me if there wasn’t an implicit or even explicit discouragement for safety. I know at my old job in the OR delaying the room for any reason was a BAD THING, and if you said it was for safety issues either they would try to convince you that it didn’t apply, or censure you for not getting it done in the time already allotted.
Oh, and never cancel a case.
Unfortunately, that’s why lawsuits are necessary. The only way to make them care is to hit them in the bottom-line. Regardless of the videographer’s motives, his video could be instrumental in the civil suits those drivers’ (and, depending on lawn damage, possibly homeowners’) insurance companies may bring.
For the record, while the employees were clearly doing the absolute bare minimum their safety training required, Comcast should be held accountable, not the workers.
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I think if only there were some bicycles in the video, we would have the necessary ingredients for a Longest Argument Thread contender.
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This is what I’ve been trying to say the whole time, with the addition that existing public services should have authority to boot Comcast from the scene. The second guy was a dick, but with how aparantly wrong he was about traffic regulation it points to a deeper issue than “a dick shows up on the scene.”
What I don’t want is people who don’t know anything about traffic management deciding they can do the equivalent of a security guard using their gun to stop an active shooter when their training tells them otherwise.
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