Unidentified Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) state transportation department members repairing a stretch of Interstate 87 near Albany, New York. The workers often find themselves inches from speeding traffic. This photo was used in the January, 2002, Work Force to illustrate the dangers DOT workers encounter daily. New York State Governor George Pataki had vetoed legislation for the second time that would have paid a hazardous duty differential to state Department of Transportation workers who work in or near traffic. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.
The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)'s special train-the-trainer session held recently focused on an often overlooked but critical job at road construction sites, the workers who direct traffic, or "flaggers." Road work zones are typically one of the most dangerous to work in, and flagging or directing traffic is one of the most dangerous jobs because it puts the worker on the front line of traffic flow. National statistics show that each year more than 100 workers are killed and more than 20,000 are injured in road construction sites. Randy Boylan, left, and Robert Wilson, both state Department of Transportation workers, demonstrate flagging procedures during a training sessin at CSEA's Rochester satellite office. The CSEA is New York State's largest union.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Ed Dry of Cattaraugus County, New York one of many Department of Transportation workers who helped clear streets following an October storm. Officials have said the wood chips from the storm would cover 25 acres and the tree limbs picked up and hauled away would fll a professional football statium. CSEA members answered the call in four Western New York counties when a freak October storm that dumped nearly two feet of snow on the area ripped down trees and knocked out power to almost 400,000 households.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members Tim Haire, a DOT sign crew worker, and DOT Sign Crew Supervisor Lois Marshall looking down from above into the culvert where they found Glen Smith, an injured driver whose truck went into the culvert along Route 89 in Ithaca, New York. The two Ithaca state Department of Transportation workers are credited with saving the life of Smith. They were repairing a road sign that had been knocked down when they noticed tire tracks ending abruptly on the side of a small hill by a deep culvert and decided to investigate. Smith was suffering from exposure. Because the site was not easy to find, the only way someone would have seen Smith was if they were walking and looking for him.
Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) members Lois Marshall, Department Of Transportation (DOT) Sign Crew Supervisor, left, and Tim Haire standing outside their DOT truck. The two Ithaca state DOT sign crew workers are credited with saving the life of Glen Smith, a driver whose truck went into a culvert along Route 89 in Ithaca, New York. They were repairing a road sign that had been knocked down when they noticed tire tracks ending abruptly on the side of a small hill by a deep culvert and decided to investigate. Smith was suffering from exposure and because the site was not easy to find, the only way someone would have seen him was if they were walking and looking for him.