Loader: In this portion of the competition, operators had to flatten out a pile of sand to 1-foot thick, then scoop up a couple of loads and dump them in the back of a truck.
It was a show for the cone zones when 14 heavy-equipment operators competed in the third annual Statewide Equipment Safety Competition on June 19 at the Kingvale Maintenance Station off Interstate 80 near Donner Summit.
In three separate events they all participated in, competitors drove (forward and backward) trucks, loaders or trucks with long trailers through narrow and sometimes sharply curving paths. The courses were lined with orange and white cones that if touched resulted in demerits. Speed was not a major factor for evaluating performance, although judges did use tape measures to see how close the big vehicles had been parked in front of cones. (Within 24 inches was desired.)
Trailer: The distance between the truck cabin and the back of the trailer tested the drivers’ precision in backing through obstacles that, in this case, were orange and white contest.
When all the machine maneuvering was done and the scores were tallied, Justin Sanders from the Truckee East crew in District 3 finished first, and Chris Robbins from the Alturas crew in District 2 captured second place. Men (no women participated this year) from Districts 6, 8 and 10 also participated.
Event coordinator Stephanie Costa, statewide training coordinator for the Maintenance Equipment Training Academy (META), was pleased with how things went.
“All 14 competitors who participated did an amazing job,” Costa said, “and we were extremely happy for the turnout. This event that META has put on for the past three years really creates a positive and competitive way to incorporate safety and camaraderie into a great event.”
Chris Cruse from the Coarsegold maintenance station in District 6 was among the competitors, and he found the experience to be worthwhile.
Truck: Judge David Jenson from District 10 measures how close a competitor stopped the truck in front of a cone. Twenty-four inches or closer was the competition’s sweet spot.
“This is a good thing,” he said. “I think more people should come out and try to do this. It helps with your skills. ... It’s all about being safe, is basically what this competition is. I look at it as just brushing up on my skills.”
Cruse and hundreds of his Caltrans equipment-operator colleagues put their skills to good use this past winter and spring, which saw significant amounts of snowfall and rain that required road-clearing, in some cases, into June.
“We had a lot of good work, you know, working with the snow plows and snow removal,” Cruse said. “If you don’t get the snow, you don’t get the time to do it. You don’t learn anything on how to remove it and all the ways of being safe about it, and everything else you’ve got to do with applying chains and – if you’re not in it, you just don’t know how to do it. So the snow helped us on keeping our skills fresh.”
This year’s judges were all maintenance supervisors from District 10: Brian Cox, David Jenson and Matt Leach. Costa also wished to thank Jeff Pike, Gerald Martinez, Steve Maki, Tim Shaw, Carmen McGowan, Andrew Prizmich, Greg Dealba and Doug Walters (and his kitchen staff) for their contributions to the event.