Lzen
04-05-2011, 07:34 PM
Ric Anderson: A life cut short
Posted: April 4, 2011 - 6:25pm
(http://clicks.beap.ad.yieldmanager.net/c/YnY9MS4wLjAmYnM9KDE0aXBqbzM1YShnaWQkYjU2OWE1NWMtNWZlZC0xMWUwLWI1ZTgtMjcyZDk5Yzg5ZDY5LHN0JDEzMDIwNTM1 Mzc2NTk3NDgsc2kkMTEwNTU1MSx2JDEuMCxhaWQkOEFBbkVFUzBxZGMtLGN0JDI1LHlieCQ4eEM3MmVGaEVXVWk0X2xQb28wZnF3 LHIkMCxyZCQxMWZtN2o2cWwpKQ/2/*http://static.cjonline.com/adhub/1001039826-1W/)
On June 1, 2005, Shirley McDonald was expecting to hear whether her son, Scott, had landed his ideal job.
Instead, the news she got that day still brings tears and pain nearly six years later.
Scotty, as he was known to his family, had been working in a temporary capacity for the Kansas Department of Transportation and had told his family he would find out that day whether he’d be added as a full-time KDOT road crew member.
Growing up, Scotty had loved to work outside. He did volunteer work with the groundskeeping crew at Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center, where Shirley worked as a psychiatric nurse, and would run off after storms to help people clear broken trees and limbs from their yards.
When the KDOT position became available, Scotty jumped at it.
“I always joked that he loved Tonka trucks when he was little, and he got to play with the big ones when he grew up,” Shirley said.
But her son’s perfect opportunity never arrived. The news that his family received that June day was that Scotty had been struck by a car and killed as he was working along US-75 highway just north of the Kansas River bridge in Topeka. He was 24.
Shirley McDonald has been speaking about his death virtually ever since, partly because it helps her heal but mostly in hopes it will protect others.
“I don’t want anybody else to feel the way I’ve felt for the last six years and the way my family has felt for the last six years,” she said. “It’s devastating. It takes a long time to come back from something like that.”
She’ll speak again Wednesday at a KDOT event promoting National Work Zone Awareness Week, an event she also helped publicize last year.
Talking about her son’s death isn’t easy for her. Not easy at all. On Monday, she cried as she talked about the accident and its aftermath. As I was taking her outside The Capital-Journal building for a photo, I asked her whether she’d left anything in the newsroom.
“Just a little part of me,” she said.
Through appearances like the one she’ll make Wednesday, she hopes she can influence motorists into looking out more for highway workers. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. at KDOT’s new Oakland office, located on US-40 highway near the K-4 junction, and will be held in conjunction with Go Orange day, in which Kansans are encouraged to wear orange clothing to support highway workers.
Part of the message to motorists this year will be that construction site safety isn’t all about protecting workers. In fact, KDOT officials said that all seven of the people who died in work zone accidents last year were motorists. A total of 1,263 accidents happened in 2010, resulting in 504 injuries.
The main cause in the vast majority of those accidents — 80 percent — was driver inattention.
That’s where Shirley McDonald hopes her message sinks in.
“I think there has been a lot of education and a lot of effort to bring awareness,” she said. “But as I drive around and see work sites, you wonder (if it’s getting through).”
True, you do. Between smartphones and in-car computers and such low-tech distractions as eating and personal grooming, there’s plenty to be worried about when it comes to the safety of highway workers.
So here’s hoping Kansans listen to Shirley’s message — and, more importantly, that they think about it the next time they see orange barrels.
Ric Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1282 or ric.anderson@cjonline.com.
Posted: April 4, 2011 - 6:25pm
(http://clicks.beap.ad.yieldmanager.net/c/YnY9MS4wLjAmYnM9KDE0aXBqbzM1YShnaWQkYjU2OWE1NWMtNWZlZC0xMWUwLWI1ZTgtMjcyZDk5Yzg5ZDY5LHN0JDEzMDIwNTM1 Mzc2NTk3NDgsc2kkMTEwNTU1MSx2JDEuMCxhaWQkOEFBbkVFUzBxZGMtLGN0JDI1LHlieCQ4eEM3MmVGaEVXVWk0X2xQb28wZnF3 LHIkMCxyZCQxMWZtN2o2cWwpKQ/2/*http://static.cjonline.com/adhub/1001039826-1W/)
On June 1, 2005, Shirley McDonald was expecting to hear whether her son, Scott, had landed his ideal job.
Instead, the news she got that day still brings tears and pain nearly six years later.
Scotty, as he was known to his family, had been working in a temporary capacity for the Kansas Department of Transportation and had told his family he would find out that day whether he’d be added as a full-time KDOT road crew member.
Growing up, Scotty had loved to work outside. He did volunteer work with the groundskeeping crew at Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center, where Shirley worked as a psychiatric nurse, and would run off after storms to help people clear broken trees and limbs from their yards.
When the KDOT position became available, Scotty jumped at it.
“I always joked that he loved Tonka trucks when he was little, and he got to play with the big ones when he grew up,” Shirley said.
But her son’s perfect opportunity never arrived. The news that his family received that June day was that Scotty had been struck by a car and killed as he was working along US-75 highway just north of the Kansas River bridge in Topeka. He was 24.
Shirley McDonald has been speaking about his death virtually ever since, partly because it helps her heal but mostly in hopes it will protect others.
“I don’t want anybody else to feel the way I’ve felt for the last six years and the way my family has felt for the last six years,” she said. “It’s devastating. It takes a long time to come back from something like that.”
She’ll speak again Wednesday at a KDOT event promoting National Work Zone Awareness Week, an event she also helped publicize last year.
Talking about her son’s death isn’t easy for her. Not easy at all. On Monday, she cried as she talked about the accident and its aftermath. As I was taking her outside The Capital-Journal building for a photo, I asked her whether she’d left anything in the newsroom.
“Just a little part of me,” she said.
Through appearances like the one she’ll make Wednesday, she hopes she can influence motorists into looking out more for highway workers. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. at KDOT’s new Oakland office, located on US-40 highway near the K-4 junction, and will be held in conjunction with Go Orange day, in which Kansans are encouraged to wear orange clothing to support highway workers.
Part of the message to motorists this year will be that construction site safety isn’t all about protecting workers. In fact, KDOT officials said that all seven of the people who died in work zone accidents last year were motorists. A total of 1,263 accidents happened in 2010, resulting in 504 injuries.
The main cause in the vast majority of those accidents — 80 percent — was driver inattention.
That’s where Shirley McDonald hopes her message sinks in.
“I think there has been a lot of education and a lot of effort to bring awareness,” she said. “But as I drive around and see work sites, you wonder (if it’s getting through).”
True, you do. Between smartphones and in-car computers and such low-tech distractions as eating and personal grooming, there’s plenty to be worried about when it comes to the safety of highway workers.
So here’s hoping Kansans listen to Shirley’s message — and, more importantly, that they think about it the next time they see orange barrels.
Ric Anderson can be reached at (785) 295-1282 or ric.anderson@cjonline.com.