What is a Flagger?
City Rise Safety Services, California’s number one traffic safety company and traffic control provider, salutes the hard-working men and women who repair and improve our roads, one of whom is called “The Flagger.”
You’ve seen them before. It is hoped drivers will appreciate the important work done by road crews to keep them rolling along smoothly and safely in their cars, and the need to practice patience and to cooperate with the occasional delay caused by the necessary road work.
The Flagger,
might be called the eyes and ears even the conscience of any road repair crew. This is not far-fetched like you might think. The flagger asks us to help by the minor act of temporarily altering our driving speed so a road can be fixed safely with a minimum of inconvenience for us all —–benefitting us all.
On any road construction project where vehicular traffic has to be slowed and diverted so repair crews can fix or improve a road, the flagger is the physical presence closest to you as you pass by the site, or the scene of an accident. The flagger is the human being who holds aloft a sign instructing you to slow down.
Flaggers are trained to be polite and courteous with drivers but also firm, giving appropriate hand signals with a flag sometimes colored red instructing us to “Stop” or “Slow Down.”
City Rise Safety Services provides highly trained flaggers.
City Rise Safety Services provides highly trained flaggers for road projects and company personnel know that with flagging, the human touch is still the best. In spite of technological innovations, computerization and modern traffic signage that sometimes includes state-of-the-art electronically controlled modern devices that flash messages asking for your cooperation, it is still the flagger who commands the greatest attention.
Other road repair crew members might be facing away from passing traffic as they toil on their work. The flagger is instead concerned with you the approaching motorist. This is a psychological moment. Your eyes meet the eyes of the flagger. He’s watching you and you see the sign he holds in his hand asking you to slow your speed and exercise caution.
It’s the eye-to-eye contact that gets the greatest result.
Human nature being what it is, some of us are more apt to try and ignore an inanimate (non-human) sign.
At an accident scene and particularly with lane closures requiring traffic control and safety, the role of the flagger is critical. The flagger not only gains your attention and keeps you from “rubbernecking,” gawking at an accident, which could result in an accident involving you, but keeps traffic moving smoothly past whatever roadwork is taking place. The flagger keeps you fixated on the road ahead and not the distraction of the roadwork or the traffic accident—-the flagger is a vital component to keep you focused—and safe.
Flaggers in addition to signs requesting you to “Stop” or “Slow” also use hand signals, lowering for example a flag with an arm held straight out to the side asking you to stop, then waving you forward when it’s time for you to proceed through the area.
Verbal commands can also be given to drivers.
Flaggers are trained professionals in their work and not simply randomly hired amateurs. They should be accorded the respect they deserve because as the eyes and ears at a road work or accident site, they make order out of what could become chaos without them.
City Rise Safety Services with locations all over California supplies trained flaggers for your road project. In fact the company handles every aspect of road control and traffic safety support from developing traffic plans designed by engineers tops in the field, to providing and setting up needed traffic management personnel and equipment, barricades, warning signs, boards, towers and more. The firm also has a full range of traffic control equipment for rental whatever your need.
For information call (844) 328-1936 or go to https://cityrisesafety.com/.
Need a flagman crew?
Whether you need same day traffic control plans, permit submittal, construction drawings, engineered traffic plans, tcp, tcps, traffic Control, lane closures, flagging or detours they are the traffic safety company for you.
Give them a call to day at (844) 328-1936 or visit them online, at Cityrisesafety.com