That is the one of the things I worry about the most. Someone looking at me on the side of the road with that camera thing and magic pole, having a wreck, and blaming me. Not someone finding one of my 20-year old surveys, misreading it and building a fence on the wrong side; OR worse yet, using it correctly and robbing me of the $200 I would make resurveying it.
Anything other than a residential street & I try to place signs and I always have a truck that is lit up like a christmas tree. While this does not seem to slow the passing traffic, at least I'm covered when OSHA shows up.
@john-putnam Yes, trucks work good. You hit my truck, I am still working tomorrow. You hit me or my robot, we are not working tomorrow.
In my experience cones do nothing - signs are not much better. We had an incident where a driver slowed down and yelled at the crew (who were on the shoulder) "You guys need to put up some signs!" He had passed our sign about 5 seconds prior... That being said, I would NEVER allow my folks on an Interstate Freeway without a full complement of cones/signs - I respect my employees more than that.
Anyone can be sued for damages. An insurance company would likely attempt to settle out of court to avoid a jury trial. You could find yourself uninsurable after something like that.
My experience is the opposite. Signs are ignored. Cones, setup properly, and using enough, work great.
I use an 18" metal plate base that has a 3" square tube with spring contraption to hold the sign. The tube is 1/8" steel about 6" high . I had someone hit one of my signs and I watched from the job site as the tow truck dragged them off with a shredded tire and messed up suspension. I was waiting for someone to come over and try to lay the liability on me but it never happened. The did manager to destroy the sing base though.
A lessoned learned from the days of GPS at night. If you really want to slow traffic, throw some good old fashion flares out. Everyone slows down to see the carriage. Just make sure that they are not going to cause a fire.
I cannot answer your question as to liability, but in Texas, if you are surveying along a DOT roadway, there are explicit instructions/guidelines for establishing notice. Signage @ 500' & 1500' before and after area you are working in, flashing safety lights, vests, etc. TxDOT does not allow working on their roadways during rain.
I would believe that a company could be proven to have liability if the state DOT guidelines, if any, were not met.
I cannot answer your question as to liability, but in Texas, if you are surveying along a DOT roadway, there are explicit instructions/guidelines for establishing notice. Signage @ 500' & 1500' before and after area you are working in, flashing safety lights, vests, etc. TxDOT does not allow working on their roadways during rain.
I would believe that a company could be proven to have liability if the state DOT guidelines, if any, were not met.
CalTrans has a permitting process if you set foot on their ROW while surveying, administered at the District level. Haven't a clue on fees. In many cases if you need access to a control station their crews will translocate it to a (your) station outside of the ROW. To wit:
"Permits for private surveys within access-controlled right-of-way are issued only for proposed
highway improvements or for data collection but only when District Surveys cannot provide the
required information from within State right-of-way to the private surveyors within a reasonable
amount of time. All survey permits on conventional highways must include unaltered Special
Provisions. Districts must cooperate with private surveyors by furnishing necessary information
and survey reference points as needed to avoid work within access-controlled right-of-way.
Authorized surveys are restricted to areas of comparatively low traffic volume when the work
can be performed safely and there is no interference to public traffic."
