BEND, OR — ODOT workers and administrators alike are reacting to the loss of two road workers in separate Oregon highway accidents less than a week apart.
“The first reaction is that we know these people, so it comes as a shock to us all that members of our family have been lost. And then we start looking at ‘Ok well, what can we do as an organization?’”
ODOT Spokesperson Peter Murphy says that since the loss of 30-year veteran Don Kendall, 54, during a standard chip seal operation near Boardman, the department has conducted several “mini safety stand-down” briefings.
“There are times when you just have to stop and let the incident kind of soak in for a little bit- feel what you’re going to feel- and then refocus to now look at, ‘Ok, well what do I need to do to make myself safer?’”
Murphy said he could recall only one other fatality in the Central Oregon region in the last 8 years he had been at ODOT.
An employee of a private construction company was also killed on the job near Echo earlier that week.
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