The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has worked hard to become the most loathed government agency in the Keystone State -- inured to criticism, besotted with nepotism and determinedly stuck in the past.
Despite having plenty of room to maneuver and no visibility issues, a PennDOT employee driving an immense plow truck more suitable for a mountain pass than a country lane, took out these mailboxes last week, the latest in a series of smash-and-run incidents on our road involving stone rows and fences, in addition to mailboxes, at the hands of drivers who seem to not give a damn or have anger issues. Or perhaps both.
Then on Sunday, a plow truck dinged the mailboxes again and took a chunk out of a utility pole, not exactly a cool move with high winds and wind chills well below zero.
YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
Asked this past year why PennDOT continues to tar and chip our road summer after summer (a throwback to when it was unpaved many years ago) rather than make badly needed repairs to holes and precipitous drop-offs on the road's shoulders that could swallow a small car, a road crew foreman offered his contemplative reply:
"Well, because that's how we've always done it."
PHOTOGRAPH BY DEBORAH OLSON
3 comments:
We have over a foot of snow here. We're expecting another foot or so this weekend.
I understand that snowplow operators like to think of themselves (like American Snipers and ER technicians) as heroes, but many of them don't impress me as being anything but idiots. Property destroyers, and pushing a wall of packed snow in front of every driveway.
I remember when I was a child many years ago, watching out my window and seeing a plow truck drive slowly down the street, and lift his plow as he passed each driveway, so as not to bury the occupants. Nowadays, they drive about forty miles an hour and throw snow and hard slush onto sidewalks and driveways. One of those idiots caused a death a few years ago in my hometown: they plowed a huge pile of snow on the side of a bridge. A car lost control and rode the pile up and over the bridge.
And every year I read about the shortage of road salt. A disaster. And yet, last spring, I saw a crew of smirking assholes dumping a pile of salt on the side of a country road. They apparently didn't want to deal with returning it to their headquarters.
I am in total sympathy and agreement with you. When stuck at Mom's and was a regular shoveler I was obliged to endure their abuse on a regular basis. They took obvious joy in filling in my hard work. There's something wrong with those guys.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. They make Philly L&I look good.
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