Your Friday Five: Breaking Signs, Lawnmower DUI’s, and Salon Formaldehyde

A sign breaks over the road during a windstorm. (Click for video, via OttawaCitizen).

Friday, August 17, 2012 — Jay Mangat was traveling along a highway in Calgary, Canada, in a severe windstorm when he noticed a highway sign bobbing violently. As Mangat’s friend drove near the sign, he filmed the violent shocks to the support beam. Just as his vehicle passed under the sign, a last jolt dislodged the sign, causing it to plummet to the ground – narrowly missing his vehicle. Luckily, no one else was injured. The video, meanwhile, has gone viral.

Man gets DUI – on a bulldozer (via RoadTrafficSigns).

Cody Gibbs, a 22 year-old from Georgia, was arrested and charged with a DUI after destroying a concrete cub and an erosion silt fence – while driving a bulldozer intoxicated. Estimated property damage is said to exceed $10,000. Gibbs is being charged with second-degree criminal damage, a felony.  The case comes on the heels of another bizarre DUI in which a Florida man was arrested for a lawn mower DUI: the 68-year-old was arrested after driving his lawn mower on the wrong side of the road, drunk.

The DOT collaborates with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety to raise awareness about distracted driving (via MyParkingSign).

Similarly, the Department of Transportation has teamed up with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) to help teach employees safe driving habits. NETS has hosted a Drive Safely to Work Week every October for the past 15 years, but this is the first that’s been promoted by the DOT.  The program emphasizes safety tips like the importance of wearing a seatbelt, or avoiding distracted driving. The initiative joins a host of other grassroots campaigns advocating safer driving habits.

Drought prompts DOT to waive truck regulations (via MyParkingSign).

The DOT has announced that it will waive hours of service requirements and federal truck weight regulations in states where the governor declares a drought emergency.  The waiver will assist farmers and ranchers by increasing the amount of commercial truck drivers transporting agricultural commodities and farm supplies. The announcement coincides with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s press release urging employers to prepare for extreme high temperatures by providing employees with heat protection.

Regulators identify a new workplace threat – salon formaldehyde (via MySafetySign).

Representatives of the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration met to discuss workplace hazards in salons. The foremost discussed hazard was formaldehyde exposure, as hair-smoothing treatments containing formaldehyde release potentially dangerous toxins into the air. The meeting follows OSHA’s  tighter regulations on beauty products containing hazardous chemicals.

– N. Gilliat