Kristin Macfarlane: Speed limits at Bay of Plenty roadworks are there for a reason

Roadworkers deserve to feel safe at work.

OPINION:

What would you do if every day someone came into your workplace and put yours and your workmates' lives in danger through unnecessary and reckless actions?

What if this happened multiple times a day?

I can't imagine anyone putting up with it - and no one should have to.

But for roadworkers, it's a reality they face every time someone drives through their worksite at a speed above the likely 30km/h limit.

In Rotorua, drivers are sending cones flying, flicking up stones and thick dust, and risking losing control through roadworks. Crews have even reported drivers deliberately clipping road cones at work sites.

In Tauranga and around the Western Bay of Plenty, police say they are constantly faced with drivers ignoring speed limits at roadworks sites, and workers often feel unsettled knowing there isn't much to protect them should a speeding driver lose control.

Driving faster than allowed at a roadworks site is something we've all seen regularly - many of us are probably guilty of it as well - but it's a dangerous act that needs to be taken seriously.

No matter how confident you are of your own driving abilities, a car can be a dangerous weapon that every person getting behind the wheel needs to respect. We can't control weather conditions, we can't control what and who we share the road with and we can't control the hazards that we may be faced with on the road.

But what we can control is our own behaviour when we are using the road and no matter how we are using it - whether we are in a car, on a bike or walking, we need to ensure that we are not a hazard to ourselves or other road users - including people on the roadsides fixing our roads.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regional system manager Rob Campbell says with spring and summer resurfacing programmes only just beginning, and hundreds of millions being poured into highway upgrades in the Bay of Plenty, motorists need to start "putting themselves in the boots of our workers".

And that is exactly how each and every one of us should think when we're approaching our next roadworks site.

We need to move away from thinking roadworks are an inconvenience to our trip and forget about the expected delay we think we will have in reaching our destination because, at the end of the day, arriving safely is better than not arriving at all.

And just as drivers' loved ones want them to return home at the end of the day, the loved ones of those working at roadworks sites want the same - and everyone deserves that opportunity.

Speeding at a roadworks site is basically a driver thinking whatever they are doing is more important than the lives of those around them.