When you looked at road cones, it wasn't a little cherry orange witches hat you saw, it was costs being inflated and people being overly cautious, the wasting of time and money, which was happening across so many government departments. When National referred to road cones during the election campaign, as they did from time to time, I thought they too were using it as a symbol of excess and a symbol of red tape strangling growth. But no, road cones are in fact in the gun.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced excessive use of the temporary traffic management tools (as they're officially known), must come to an end. He says use of road cones is out of control and the temporary speed limit reductions that are often left in place when work is complete is a massive frustration for drivers, and says common sense must prevail.
Of course, safety for road workers must be paramount. I heard Andrew mention 40 deaths a year... well, no, there are 10 deaths per year among road workers and 30 serious injury accidents. Way too many. That's 10 deaths too many, 30 serious injury accidents too many, even taking into account that you're working with unforgiving machinery and that there are far more risk factors involved than there are in working in an office, that's way too many accidents.
But clearly an overabundance of road cones doesn't equate to an overabundance of caution. There are millions of road cones on our roads, and they are not keeping the road workers safe. It's unlikely more road cones is going to be the answer when it comes to workplace safety.
I imagine there will be a chill wind blowing through the accounts offices of all those companies and contractors that have been working for government departments. No more sending off of invoices and just counting the gold coins coming back into the company. This seems to send a message that costs will be questioned and audited and double checked, and this is a very, very good thing. People have to be accountable when it's taxpayer dollars that are funding the projects, and I suspect that while many, many companies and businesses and who can blame them, have had a glorious few years feathering their nests, the good times are fast coming to an end.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
Of course, safety for road workers must be paramount. I heard Andrew mention 40 deaths a year... well, no, there are 10 deaths per year among road workers and 30 serious injury accidents. Way too many. That's 10 deaths too many, 30 serious injury accidents too many, even taking into account that you're working with unforgiving machinery and that there are far more risk factors involved than there are in working in an office, that's way too many accidents.
But clearly an overabundance of road cones doesn't equate to an overabundance of caution. There are millions of road cones on our roads, and they are not keeping the road workers safe. It's unlikely more road cones is going to be the answer when it comes to workplace safety.
I imagine there will be a chill wind blowing through the accounts offices of all those companies and contractors that have been working for government departments. No more sending off of invoices and just counting the gold coins coming back into the company. This seems to send a message that costs will be questioned and audited and double checked, and this is a very, very good thing. People have to be accountable when it's taxpayer dollars that are funding the projects, and I suspect that while many, many companies and businesses and who can blame them, have had a glorious few years feathering their nests, the good times are fast coming to an end.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
4 comments:
For the past few years we've noticed lots of road cones and very little actual work fixing the road. Too many cones, too many delays. Simeon Brown is absolutely right to focus on this. Let's return to commonsense. 😎
I think many road workers are over qualified, there seems to be too many with post graduate degrees in leaning on a shovel and not enough skilled in using one.
Of course we watch them as we inch past. They just stand around doing NOTHING! It's a complete rort in full public view. Good grief Charlie Brown!
A friend of mine returned last month from a trip that included rental car driving in Turkey, Croatia, Italy and Spain. During those drives he encountered a reasonable number of work details, but noted few cones (signposts, sometimes stop/go lights, plenty of workers and machinery in action). Just out of interest, he kept a casual tab of how many of the cones he observed - the total count was just less than 50.
I drove along Lake Rd last week, and did a rough estimate of the number of cones out for one work detail - there were around 130, and there were more extending into Old Lake Rd. Funnily enough, most machines were idle, as were a number of staff.
Yep, welcome home.
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