Crawley
MONTICELLO — In his 13 years working for the state Department of Transportation, CSEA Sullivan County DOT Local President Jimmy Crawley has seen distracted driving and road rage progressively worsen every year.
Crawley strongly supports our union’s lobbying efforts to expand resources to keep workers safe on the job and increase penalties for careless drivers, backing the proposed state budget measures to expand the Work Zone Speed Camera Program, double available work zone cameras, and increase fines for speeding in work zones.
“I’m 100 percent on board,” said Crawley, a highway maintenance supervisor 1. “The way I look at it, one life [lost]is too many. If we can use our voice as a union to get these measures passed, it will benefit everyone who works on our roads.”
Like other members of our union family across the state, DOT workers in Sullivan County are constantly on guard while working on state highways and secondary roads. Just as roadwork season is kicking into gear in Sullivan County, the county’s population undergoes a seasonal spike as visitors from New York City and surrounding areas arrive.
With tourism a main driver in the county’s economy, the number of cars on the state roadways sees an uptick, which also means an increase in work zone incidents and road rage.
“People don’t move over, and they don’t pay attention,” said Crawley. “You see them on their cell phones not paying attention. We had one of our attenuators get hit because someone wasn’t paying attention.”
Crawley said that having New York State Police assigned to a work zone deters speeding, but even when police are present, incidents still occur.
“We get the middle finger. We get cars stopped in the middle of the highway,” said Crawley. “I’ve seen cars hit our stop paddles. I’ve seen a lot of road rage. Having the state troopers with us does help, but they’re not able to be with us everywhere.”
Our union’s continued lobbying efforts for highway safety have made a difference, Crawley said, but he also feels that increased penalties won’t make an impact unless public awareness increases.
“We need to educate people,” said Crawley. “This should be on billboards. It should be on the back of the trucks. You have some people who don’t care, but a lot of people haven’t been educated and that needs to change.”
— Jessica Ladlee
