Road construction, it's everywhere. And it sucks.
We want nice, well-maintained roads, sure. And that's no matter what we're riding or driving. But things can get really sketchy while the construction is actually underway. Especially if you're on two wheels. If you ride on public roads, and don't only stick to dirt or the track to get your riding fix, then chances are excellent that you've ridden through road construction before.
Sometimes it's not so bad. Maybe it's well-marked. Maybe the construction workers in your area didn't just leave a sharp concrete lip at the edge of the construction zone. Or, if they did, maybe they marked it clearly and far enough in advance so that riders and drivers had adequate time to prepare for that particular road surface change.
But that doesn't always happen, and the family and friends of a rider named Joshua Ballard are now mourning his loss because of one such construction zone on I-295, near Richmond International Airport in Virginia. According to local news station WTVR, Ballard was riding his Harley with a passenger on the back at around 10:40 a.m. on Saturday, October 26, headed north.
Investigators reportedly told Ballard's family that around the 31-mile marker, "Ballard's motorcycle struck a 3- to 4-inch exposed lip between the lanes where resurfacing work was taking place." Of course they were shocked and horrified to hear this, as would we all be.
It's a nightmare for his family, and it's every rider's worst nightmare, too. You can tell that this one hits different, because investigators that WTVR spoke to even say that, although they're still investigating, they don't believe Ballard was at fault. And you know as well as I do that officials love to automatically blame riders because what we do is dangerous.
No, in this case, the investigators are operating under the working theory that this massive, 3- to 4-inch concrete lip along this road surfacing area was unmarked. So Ballard and other traffic would have no warning, and what ultimately killed him was absolutely not his fault.
A lip like that is not great for cars, of course, especially if they're naturally low-slung, or have otherwise been lowered. But it's potentially deadly for motorcycles, as Ballard unfortunately experienced.
If you, like me, have ever encountered unexpected construction zones that go from bad to worse on your bike, maybe even to the point where you either have to pull over or push through (and literally pull over, shaking and crying later because it got SO BAD and you don't know how you didn't drop your bike, but you're grateful you survived), then this one probably hits a little different.
I've never ridden in Virginia, but it's not like road construction is uncommon elsewhere. So I have to ask, why is this a thing? Obviously, road repairs need to happen. But why aren't there procedures in place to increase both awareness and safety of ALL road users?
Adequate signage placed ahead of the area where the road work is happening is one thing, but taking all reasonable steps to ensure that there aren't things like "a 3- to 4-inch lip" just sitting out there for vehicles to randomly encounter, with no ramp or warning seems like a no-brainer. Like, you don't want to step on LEGOs, right? No one does. So you put them away, and then you don't step on them.
I understand that it's a multi-day process to do what road crews need to do, sometimes. But we've all seen those big metal plates they put down sometimes over big holes or ruts in the road, for the purpose of safety. Isn't there something like that to put down over exposed lips like this, until they can be smoothed out and better integrated into the rest of the pavement, so things like this don't happen?
