City of Saskatoon unveils new vehicles to keep workers safer following accidents

Construction zones in Saskatoon will look a little different this year.

The city has brought in new vehicles to help keep staff safe, after incidents where workers were nearly killed by distracted or impaired drivers over the past few years.

It’s a chain of three vehicles. First is a pilot truck, which sports a message board to alert traffic about work ahead so people have time to slow down and move into another lane.

“As well, what they were doing (before) was instead of being protected (while) putting out traffic cones they were walking down the road and placing traffic cones,” said Terry Schmidt, transportation and construction general manager.

Now, the second vehicle in line is equipped so workers can place cones out the back of a truck while strapped in with a harness.

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The vehicle must not drive more than five kilometres an hour while people are in the back.

Bringing up the rear is a truck with an impact attenuator, essentially a cushion to minimize damage if they’re hit.

The vehicles cost around $130,000 combined, including for research and development of the technology, according to the city.

The new set up was unveiled as part of the city’s “respect work zones” campaign.

1:15 Baydo building twin 25-storey residential towers in downtown Saskatoon