By Tim Bowley, Operations Manager
'Tis the season for orange road cones. Fa la la la la! OK, I even beat Walmart to the Christmas music this year with that one! We have reached the season where the seemingly endless supply of orange cones and barrels comes to decorate our roadways, and heavy equipment fills the air with their festive backup alarms and flashing lights. (Last one, I promise!)
While we are all annoyed at the prospect of having to slow down, moreover, and lose those 10 extra seconds we have built into our schedule for the day, please remember that the men and women working in those zones are someone's son, daughter, mom, or dad.
Speeding in work zones
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there were 956 fatalities on roads in 2021; 32% of those fatalities were directly attributed to excessive speed, with 25 in Indiana and 19 in Ohio alone. Sadly, both Indiana and Ohio rank in the top half of the country in this statistic. Surely, we can do better! Please slow down. 
Distracted driving
Distracted driving is another leading cause of traffic accidents, and doing so in a work zone is a recipe for disaster. While sending a five-second text, your vehicle travels 100 yards at 55 mph. Let's leave the 100-yard drives to the Buckeyes, Irish, Boilermakers, or your local high school team instead of our vehicles!
Your Paulding Putnam Electric crews are no different in their work zones than those men and women working along the highways. While our crews do not have miles and miles of orange cones, we generally have plenty of signage to notify drivers that we are working in the area.
Our goal is not to keep you from getting to work, doctor appointments, or yoga classes; it is to improve our electrical system so we can continue to provide reliable electric service to your family.
Crews working along the roads are changing poles that have reached the end of their life cycle, upgrading wire size to increase capacity, or installing service to a home for your new neighbor. Crews that will have a lane closed will have flaggers on busy roads to help control the flow of traffic. This ensures that drivers can safely navigate our work zone to protect other motorists as well as our linemen.
The next time you see our crews along the road changing a pole, please enjoy the festive orange signs and cones, the amber flashing lights, and the sounds of the big trucks... and give our guys a wave and a cheery hello! (Last one - I mean it this time.)
After all, they are working for you, our members!