How roadwork limit signs could kill a roadworker

In case you think I’m one of those people who believes builders shouldn’t wear hard hats when they’re building stuff, I’m not. Safety is a tremendous thing. And while OHS red-tape and trade unionism may mean we don’t build Hoover Dams in good time anymore; the fact does remain that 96 people generally don’t die in the process.

Sooner or later, though, safety people are going to kill us.

Just yesterday, I was reading the back of a tin of sardines to find out whether they had come from the polluted waterways of China, but instead of some such intelligence it said, “Contains fish.” Goodness. Imagine buying a tin of sardines and then discovering when you got it home, that you’d actually bought a tin of fish.

And then on the back of a model car box, that said it wasn’t for people under the age of 14 anyway: “Do not catch your hands or fingers in movable parts such as doors and wheels! Do not hurt yourself on accessories projecting from the car!” Come now, I'm over 14. I got up this morning and made breakfast without jamming my head in the bowls cupboard. Oddly, I didn't electrocute myself with the toaster and butter knife either. So it’s probable I won’t shut a tiny car door on my precious fingernail.

It’s madness, and you might say the blame needs to be laid at the feet of compensation lawyers. Companies like Yellow River Sardines are only covering themselves from pathetic lawsuits, because after all, people have been known to sue cafes after they burned their silly little mouths with hot chocolate that turned out to be hot. And you’d be partially right. But the only reason such cases aren’t immediately kicked out of the justice system is because of safety people and their ubiquitous safety culture.

Now the biggest problem with all this isn’t that it’s an insult to intelligence. It’s that in an abundance of such stupid signage and warnings, when one does pop up that we probably should take notice of, we don’t. Because we presumed it was another advising “Do NOT submerge your baby in water for 10 minutes!”

And this brings me, first, to a roadwork phenomenon. I daresay you’ve seen it. Safety people would say that it is necessary to give the vulnerable workers, 30m off to the side of the road, a wide berth, so the roadworks speed limit of 40km/h needs to be at least 1km before any activity.

Unfortunately, this works once. But then it gets ignored. People know where the roadworks are, and they understand they can do 60km/h for another valuable minute and then slow down with plenty to spare before the roadworks materialise. Needless to say, some get booked and this causes safety people to sit down with their precious data and say, “People aren’t actually slowing down for roadworks” – which means of course, the zone is increased.

It brings me, secondly, to a slogan Queensland emblazoned on their mobile speed cameras awhile back:

EVERY K OVER IS A KILLER.

I can imagine there was a lot of joy, within politically-correct parameters, in some department when that slogan was born. “Oh great one, Kolena!” And I fully understand it’s supposed to bolster the “There’s no such thing as safe speed” message, but here’s the thing – it doesn’t. Because it’s not true.

Every kilometre over the limit is obviously not a killer. And telling people foolish, dumbed down things like that is like saying to everyone who plops in a teaspoon of sugar instead of a Stevia capsule that they will die of a heart attack tomorrow. Or that the world will be over in 5 years if the government doesn’t offer EV subsidies.

People just won’t take you seriously, which is unfortunate, if you’ve got a serious message.

And the more safety people cry wolf, the more likely townsmen won't listen, and one day, some poor sheep will be eaten.