City of Saskatoon crews are busy putting down pavement markings that keep motorists in line during their daily commute.
After taking a beating over the winter, the lines are slowly re-emerging, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
“We’ve got about 900 km of lane lines to paint, we’ve got over 1,100 crosswalks to paint and we try to do those twice every year,” said Cory Funk, the city’s traffic operations manager.
The city is asking drivers to be patient and respect work zones as crews work their way through that long list, but not everyone is.
Funk hears of way too many close calls with drivers disobeying flag people, getting through the work zone even by going around it.
“And whether that’s on the street and narrowly missing a worker or up onto a boulevard, up into somebody’s lawn, it’s crazy, it’s stupid … And you’re saving seconds,” Funk said.
Funk said they don’t take this lightly and those drivers can expect to hear from police.
“As long as we get a make and model, maybe how the person looks and a licence plate and we’ve gone to the police on many, many times,” Funk said.
According to Saskatchewan Government Insurance, disobeying the direction of a flag person can result in a $150 fine and three demerits.
One bad decision by an impatient driver could ultimately result in tragic consequences.