Workplace safety history is being made on the SH29 Kaimai Ranges roadworks sites at Ruahihi and Ngamuwahine Rd.

Recently at Ruahihi the unthinkable – roadworks cones arranged in a row spaced so tightly they were touching one another.

This reckless spacing of cones means further safety improvements achievable by ever closer spacing of cones is now impossible. Two rows of cones may be the only way forward.

Then on April 5 a bombshell at the Ngamuwahine site. The road cone man had been on the job since daybreak creating a one-way maze, the stop/go boys were mercilessly wielding their signs – but no road workers.

‘Ah', I hear you say, this may not mean progress is slower than usual but think about it: No workers equals no accidents – and the days worked without accident statistics could become infinite. Surely this is Utopia for the world's most socially advanced country.

A F Cotter, Otumoetai.