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SAFETY WORKERS KEEP ROADS OPEN

July 12, 2009 12:36 am

By KELLY HANNON

Few people meet Eric Johnson while they are having a good day.

Drivers encounter Johnson on the day their tire blows out on Interstate 95. It's the day they're stranded on the side of a highway as tractor-trailers pass at 80 mph, rocking their car's frame.

It's the day their suitcase flies off the roof rack.

Johnson, a safety service patrolman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, sees it differently. Johnson loves his job, even if he's meeting people in stressful circumstances.

"Every day is a new day. Every day is different," said Johnson, 26.

The patrolman is a member of a six-person crew that loops up and down I-95 in the Fredericksburg area every day, providing free roadside assistance and keeping lanes clear. They are recognizable by their neon-yellow-and-orange uniforms, the traffic cones in the pickup truck bed, and the flashing emergency lights.

People are grateful for the help. A VDOT office in Thornburg has a three-ring binder stuffed with thank-you notes from drivers up and down the East Coast. The words "angel" and "godsend" are used repeatedly.

There is a letter from state Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who ran out of gas on his way to a meeting in Richmond. A patrol truck gave him enough gas to finish his trip.

Johnson said the patrol does quite a bit to boost the state's image.

"People always coming through from other states say 'We wish we had this in our state.' And that's why Virginia's special," he said.

Virginia is not trying to duplicate AAA. It is trying to keep fender-benders from becoming show-stoppers on Interstate 95.

"It only takes one incident to create a lot of traffic delays and backups, the rubberneckers," said Glenn McMillan, VDOT district maintenance engineer for the Fredericksburg area. "If you do a better job of getting to those incidents quicker you stand a better chance of clearing the road."

Two safety service patrol trucks run up and down I-95 in Fredericksburg and Stafford and Spotsylvania counties on a circuit from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, with one truck on weekends from noon to 8 p.m.

VDOT also runs safety service patrols on I-95 as far north as the 14th Street Bridge, on the Capital Beltway and Interstate 66, and in the Hampton Roads area. The patrols started in Northern Virginia in the late 1980s, and have gradually expanded.

Despite the public's appreciation, budget cuts have limited safety service patrols this year as VDOT tries to close a $2.6 billion budget gap for transportation.

Caroline County was dropped from the service route this month, and now only one truck circulates in the Fredericksburg area on weekends, instead of two. Weekday patrols have dropped to two trucks per shift instead of three. The savings will total $6.5 million a year statewide.

Fewer patrols means fewer eyes on the interstate to troubleshoot problems.

On Monday afternoon, traffic slowed on northbound I-95 at mile marker 132 in Stafford because of an electronic message board. Traffic slowed a mile in advance of the sign as drivers read that delays were ahead--way ahead, from mile markers 148 to 161.

Johnson, eyeing the congestion, called in the jam on his truck's radio.

"That's a delay we can get rid of just by turning that sign off," he said.

Patrol crews do interstate triage. They are almost always first to reach a crash site, and they assess what to do first, second, third. They communicate with Virginia State Police dispatch, which motorists can reach by pressing #77 to report a car by the side of the road, a crash or an emergency. Patrols call in congestion to VDOT's traffic minders, who post the information on 511virginia.org.

Patrols change tires and carry enough gas to get drivers to the next exit. They hand out water in summer and blankets in winter.

They call AAA, family members and tow trucks. They control traffic during a crash so state police can handle the wreck and rescue workers can treat victims.

They dash into the interstate's travel lanes to retrieve debris. They have pulled crash victims from wreckage. Johnson recalled a recent crash on I-95 in which an infant died. "That's the hard part of the job," he said.

Most of all, patrols provide comfort as drivers wait for AAA or a tow truck.

"We sit with them the whole time. We don't leave them," Johnson said.

CHANGING 2,314 TIRES

Johnson has changed tires on nearly every model of car, from Bentleys to Buicks. It is one of the most-requested services. Last year, the patrol in the Fredericksburg area changed 2,314 tires.

This routine repair can have dangerous consequences on I-95. Nothing separates a person changing a tire from traffic whipping past at high speed. Patrols stop to protect drivers from traffic as much as they do to change the tire.

On Monday, Johnson saw a motor home on the side of I-95 northbound just before the Rappahannock River bridge at a little before 1 p.m. A cluster of passengers stood by a rear, very flat, tire. One held a wrench. The group seemed to be arguing about what to do. The temperature was in the mid- to upper 80s.

Johnson pulled his VDOT-owned GMC Duramax 2500 pickup onto the shoulder behind the motor home. He called in the plate number--the motor home had a Quebec tag--and made meticulous notes of the time and interstate mile marker before stepping out of the cab.

"In case anything happens," Johnson explained.

Johnson used a wooden block to lift the motor home. The block is specially designed for vehicles with double axles.

"The tire exploded," said Johanne Ross, 53, of Saint-Hubert, Quebec.

The family was traveling from Virginia Beach to Washington.

"Is this a free service?" Ross asked, surprised to learn that that it was. Her family belongs to the Canada Automobile Association, but they were trying to fix the tire themselves until Johnson pulled up. Johnson and several family members changed the tire. The group was on its way within 15 minutes.

THE DANGERS ARE REAL

Not all calls end so smoothly.

During an ice storm last year, Johnson watched a full-size SUV rolling over repeatedly straight at him when he stopped to assist another driver. It was like something from an action-adventure movie, he said. Only it was real, and he could see the driver's hands sticking out the window, and heard every window break the first time the SUV hit the ground. It missed hitting him by feet.

He urges drivers to slow down in bad weather. "People think they can drive 75 mph over snow," Johnson said. "It just doesn't work."

Another patrol crew member was taken to the emergency room once after a vehicle sideswiped him. "Six more inches, and he would've been gone," said Todd Hamlett, a former patrol crew member who now supervises the Fredericksburg-area unit from VDOT's Thornburg office.

The job is not for everyone. One trainee balked at having to run out and retrieve debris from a travel lane. The hours are unpredictable, since a crash that happens a half-hour before the end of a shift can take hours to clear. Patrollers also have to stay calm in life-or-death situations.

"They do a good job out there," Hamlett said. "They work independently. They handle situations and all kinds of issues you don't really want to even see."

They also have to keep a straight face. During his three years on patrol, Johnson has encountered nudity, enraged drivers and loose livestock running across I-95.

He has learned to take each day as it comes. And once he clocks out, he heads home on anything but the interstate.

"I don't go on 95 unless I have to, and that's only when I'm working," Johnson said.

Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com