I knew I shouldn't have clicked the link while eating breakfast... LOL

I thought it was gonna move out of the way.

They couldn't take a can of the paint and finish the line with a brush?

Good thing it wasn't Randy Travis.

I used to see something like this every Saturday morning. It usually involved a black cat and a randy skunk with a French accent. Oh la la.

The road crew knew it was there, but they were too lazy to move it out of the way. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone who will do the job right.

the squirrelly geometry of the road

A zoologist this man is not

James: This story is very reminiscent of the old joke about government workers:

One government worker was digging a hole, the other was filling it back in. When someone stopped to ask why they were doing that, one of the government workers replied: "the guy who puts the tree in the hole called in sick."

Have you ever seen the equipment they use to paint road lines in Pennsylvania? The operator can't see the road. There's usually someone in front of them who can see the road. On this day, that person wasn't there. Maybe you missed that part.

My new candidate for the "Not My Job" trophy.

Anybody in that State here of a shovel? One should be carried on the equipment just for this type of situation. This is not that funny, this is what people complane about State workes for. The suppervisor of that crew should loss his union a-- job.

Hey James.... you have no clue.... and as it said... do you know the size of these trucks and the volume of paint they carry?.... hundreds of gallons with painting white, yellow at the same time. You don't stop those trucks on a dime... One of my jobs with the sewer department collection system is "road kill".... yea... I pick up this junk.... why?... because we have rubber gloves, spray disinfectant, etc... and I could tell you about the motorists that are rude... etc.... I've had times I've wanted to "fling" the dead animal at them. Most are good when I stop my Ford 250 Utility cab as far out of the traffic as possible (try doing that on a two lane road with almost not shoulder... and make sure you get out on the passenger side so you don't become part of some guys car)....., put the flashing lights on, put on my yellow vest and rubber gloves... Now comes the hard part... make sure that traffic isn't coming (and sometimes you need a shovel as they do get "mashed"... if you are in a residential area you put it in a plastic bag... if you're in the rural area... just "fling" it into the woods but be certain no parts come back out)... also.... you do need to make sure it is actually dead... one time I picked up a possum which was smashed but did seem to have some life... sure as heck scared me... but then... Dead deer are the hardest.. they really don't want to co-operate.. and of course when they are in "multiple" pieces it does get interesting.. just get them off the side of the road.. but be careful of the motorists that give you the "finger" or speed by honking their horn as "you are in their way"... and then their are the nutcases who swerve out of the lane and go into the other lane as they don't want to hit a dead dog or skunk.... but would rather get hit by the care in the other lane... so then back into the truck... spray your hands with good disinfectant (don't want to get some terrible disease)... go back and wash your hands (remember to do that before eating again)... and then dispose of the body... my favorite place is around our lake... we have two families of foxes up their who seem to see my truck coming and will sit out there and wait for their lunch... they don't get bothered by me anymore... And last but not least when the lady calls and says she has a black dog in the road... it's usually a skunk.... but it sure is interesting!!!!

@Patrick Hanna

Have you ever seen the equipment they use to paint road lines in Pennsylvania? The operator can't see the road. There's usually someone in front of them who can see the road. On this day, that person wasn't there. Maybe you missed that part.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that SOMEONE can see the road in front of the machine. Surly you are not suggesting that they just blindly plod along running over anything in their path.

RevSpinnaker, I don't know.....I've never seen Randy and that raccoon in the same room EVER. Kinda like Clark Kent and that Superman fellow.

Hey Kevin, you don't send a crew out with out a boss, like this crew was to have gone out, RIGHT. If it's so big and difficult to deal with, make more excuse for them. Then fire who ever is in charge of sending out the crews for endangering the PUBLIC, that is exactly what they did in this case no management or suppervision in charge of this crew. One State work to another some of us have to do the sh--- work that's what we get paid for.

If this was a human would you use the same lame excuse couldn't see them couldn't stop in time! I'm with bubba shame on them for going out without proper supervision and putting the public at risk.

Those road painters move at a glacial pace. You're telling me they couldn't detail one guy to walk in front of it with a shovel? I know, I know, "It's not my job."

The missing foreman is probably back a mile or two, painted with the white paint and the dead 'possum with the asphalt coating.

A sad commentary of the American work ethic. It's no wonder all the jobs are going overseas!

Not that he cares anymore but that racoons dignity went right out the window. Bad enough that I have to lay here squished in the middle of the road so people can see I wasn't smart enough to cross the road...and now this :(

Sorry but that is hilarious! Now as to why they didn't move it, I've seen the machines and the guy running the paint sprayer usually does have a limited vision, that being said the guy driving should've seen it. So while it was tough to stop I don't think it was totally the reason either. In the end, pick it, throw it in a bag or in the woods as this looks to be a rural area, get a small can of paint and a brush or roller and fix the missed spot. End of story.

It is time

Did the author mean this as a pun or was it an accidental animal road kill word association?

“But with the amount of congestion Thursday, the squirrelly geometry of the road and the size of the equipment, they couldn’t turn around to go back and fix the mistake."

Just sayin'...

Union labor.

Good thing they didn't come upon any stopped traffic or you would have 200 cars with yellow stripes on them.

Hey Homer, 'nother beer?

Your tax dollars at work....or more correctly....NOT at work.

This picture has to be 20 years old. It was one of the early "forwards" being sent around via email.

It's possible it's something that happened "again." Either way, someone ruined what could've been a perfectly good hat.

@Devil's Son

Red state wonders. GOP governor, GOP state senate, GOP state house. What do you expect in a state where people don't report children being raped because it would affect the football?

You're so blinded by political bias I seriously doubt you can even see what "color" any state is.

And of course the reality is that these state employees aren't exactly all buddy, buddy with their republican Governor who want to cut their pay and benefits.

Your posts are usually laughable but I will admit this one takes it to a new level. Blaming the GOP led state government for deficient work done by the heavily democratic state unions is such a stretch I hope you didn't hurt yourself when you fell out of your chair reaching for it.

@Backcountry....WOW, good post!!!!

SQUIRELLY GEOMETRY of the road causes death of a raccoon?? Were there any opossums or skunks who might have seen the accident? They need to come forward with their accounts. Oh yeah, chipmunks too. With a good lawyer, Rocky the Raccoon's family will soon be leaving LARGE! Litigation powers the nation. Casey Anthony's lawyer is available........

Big deal, we see this in Texas all the time...except the poor fellow in this case would be the State Mascott...the Amadillo...

This was the best laugh I had today, just too funny. Our State tax dollars hard at work.

DocHolliday-2979123

Big deal, we see this in Texas all the time...except the poor fellow in this case would be the State Mascott...the Amadillo...

Q: How many Texans does it take to eat an armadillo?
A: Three. One to eat it and two to watch for cars.

OMG!

Saw this on the tv the other day and this is a country road with low traffic. Typicle public employee union member mentality. "It's not my job"

Do you know how to tell if a road kill is fresh?

answer :It does not have a yellow line across it

Come on I'm a public employee, this is no laughing matter. I agree the picture is funny, but the reason behind it is no joke and the people responsible including the one who gave this lame interview, the person who sent this crew out with out supervision, and I don't by that, the person who drove that machine with out a supervisor in charge should be FIRED! Including the Commissioner in charge of the roads, his number one jobs is to see that the Public is protected. OMG yes He/she has laws he/she is appointed by the Governor to follow those laws. make them. it's not my job is not the answer, Who job was it and why wasn't it done Commissioner, your in charge of the roads. Sanitery then fire that Commissioner. Make them pay for it.

On this day, that person wasn't there. Maybe you missed that part.

So that means they couldn't even look at their work as they went?

No one else was qualified to clear debris from the path of the paint?

Nothing but laziness and excuses for why this happened.

If the work could not be done properly, they should not have even done it. Says very little about the level of training of the employees.

But the crew didn't have a foreman that morning

The foreman is the guy with the authority to call the guy who will send a guy out to pick-up the road kill with the guy who drives the "road kill picker-upper truck". You know simple municipal union worker stuff.

and the equipment was too big to turn around in traffic on the curvy, narrow road

Unless it was 12:45, fifteen minutes after lunch break when it's time to head back the garage, so as to be right in front of the time clock to punch out at 3:30.

so the line couldn't be painted without the carcass in the way.

Straight from the page 2,313 of the "road painters" employee hand book. Note: Pages 1 through 2312 is thier benefits package info. Oh, and there is no page 2,314, just the back cover.

A simple angle blade, smaller version of a snow plow blade, and a small street sweeper brush in front of the spray nozzel would prevent this from happening. Since they are too lazy to get off the machine with a shovel anyway may as well make it easy. Since I am too lazy to patent the idea, anyone reading this has permission to do it. Of course the unions will be mad as it will put probabaly 5 people per crew out of a job.

When has anyone working for the government had an ounce of brains? You pick up the animal and throw it to the side of the road and paint in the missing foot of paint. DUHHHHHHHHHH fire the bastards and give the jobs to someone who needs them.

Reminds me of the school board meetings that took place in Pennsylvania what to do about a squeaking door. They discussed it several meetings in a row and finally one of the members went out and bought a box of .29 screws and tightened the door. Next meeting they took up the issue again and the member said he fixed it in 10 minutes and all the rest of the members got angry as they were supposed to get bids and then decide which carpenter was going to get the $500 contract to fix the door.

Not really. Being a resident of Pennsylvania, I have to say this flub is the least of our road problems. But the media doesn't care to report the news that might impact peoples' take on the bigger picture. PA is a wasteland of road construction that doesn't seem to make the roads any better and the leadship of the state doesn't seem to take the situation in hand in my near 4 decades of being a resident.

If this story would represent the worst of the worst I'd be 100% thrilled.

This reminds me of my community. When they announced the Keep America Working program within weeks signs went up exclaiming that our roads were part of that project. About nine months later crews came in and asphalted our Island community roads. With in weeks potholes appeared and when the rains came, massive property flooding directly due to the wider roads run off. The roads are steadily going downhill. I'm all for infrastructure and jobs but shouldn't it be done right and not for the sake of social welfare.

east coast

Not really. Being a resident of Pennsylvania, I have to say this flub is the least of our road problems.

PA resident here also and you are 100% correct.

I live on the PA / NY border and see the differences in DOT between NY and PA. Snowing to beat the band? You see a NY DOT plow truck right away. PA truck? Not so much. I have traveled on several interstates with almost a foot of snow in PA before.

And dont even get me started why it takes 10 trucks and 30 guys to do some blacktop.

It's a national epidemic. In Indiana you can see 4 or 5 miles of orange barrels, all equipment idled, and maybe 3 or 4 guys standing around. And this is in prime daily working times. Never have quite figured this out. Is there an engineering protocol involved or just featherbedding?

It woulda been even funnier had it been some Politician in the road instead of a coon.

It woulda been even funnier had it been some Politician in the road instead of a coon.

... It woulda been better if it was both...

..... Banned from newsvine in 3... 2......

Good one Spencer

Yeah...I've watched those stripe paintings. The road is being watched non-stop. This is a clear case of somebody to lazy to stop for a second and scoop the thing out of the way with a shovel.

Gee Wally, I could have swore he was walking across the road but maybe I am still hammered from last nights poker party.

If this were a tree limb, piece of garbage or some other inanimate object, that would be funny.I have never found humor in the death of another creature no matter the circumstances.This is a reminder nature still tries to find a way to coexist with us despite our roads, buildings, busy lives and destruction of natural resources.And it depends totally on us to show it respect. A line we keep crossing but should never.

Winddancersong....I understand your concern for humanity but did you intend the irony in your words?

A line we keep crossing but should never.

Windancersong - I couldn't agree more.

The human species doesn't seem to have any regard or respect for any other living creature.

Such arrogance. It will be the death of us.

IndigoKid...thing is this is no longer a living creature.

Yes, txmom32 I did. What an ironic symbol representing two different worlds colliding.Humans put those lines on that road to represent restricted movement or choices which man has created to live in the modern world. Underneath is nature squarely caught crossing that boundary man has established. As if to show how dare it get in the way and break our rules.For the price of interfering will be death.

Indigokid..Just because it is longer living does not mean it is open season for some people to now open the flood gates.To use it as a rubbish pile for every idea they can think of to disrespect it, make jokes about it's manner of death, attribute human weaknesses to it such as cowardliness and in general use it as an excuse to let their less humane side show.According to your comment, that would be like saying when your neighbor's pet dies, it no longer matters if people laught and joke about it, because it is now dead. The amount of personal time invested towards a life does not necessarily determine its value either. Children have it right,too many adults are the ones who have forgotten.When kids see something that has died, they are sad and want it taken care of because they still can feel the connection to the world around them and their hearts are open.

Are you saying the raccoon commited suicide?

Haha! I was just going to post that! :-D

groooaaannnnn!!!

He said that "painting the yellow lines over the existing lines is not easily done,” adding that the problem occurs “pretty frequently.”

I especially love this part. Take a can of yellow paint to the space is where the raccoon was....get a paint brush...paint a line....and done. This was easily a "not my job" scenerio.

No, he just has a yellow streak down his back. What a coward.

I actually have a copy of the other pic, which has been floating around the internet for years. The other pic is definitely a possum, and it's dated 1995.

Watch your language reterry. The PC people will be after you. Define PC. Puerile Commentator.

Hankvreeland - why would the PC police care? Coon's age means a long time and has no racial connotation whatsoever. Just because it shares similarity with a slur doesn't make it one. BTW, niggardly is also a perfectly innocent word but people are afraid to use it.

www.takeourword.com/TOW193/page2.html

fatibel, because that's how over PC people can be. They manufacture something that isn't even there into something else. I consider myself pretty liberal but I have heard some real idiots out there on "political correctness" and they make me wanna puke.

Typical union employees.

Freddy-667576

Typical union employees.

Pretty sure PENNDOT isnt union.

They manufacture something that isn't even there into something else.

You mean with like with the baiting you're trying?

Mike, did you know there is such a thing as kosher dog food? So your dogs Bernie and Saul have no diet problems. They also sell vegetarian dog food. I told this to a dog trainer here and she could not believe someone would do that to a dog. Both of these were being sold/advertised in the back of a PETA magazine. Does the dog really need a kosher diet? Should a carnivore(dog)be forced to be a vegetarian or starve because it's owner is? To me, that's over PC.

And the road crew never checked to see if the "really big machine" had reverse.

Get out of the truck?? Ron you are a funny man.

They are worth only minimum wage... go Doherty!

Last year crews were painting lines around where i live. The next days Headline News was "hundreds of vehicles" head to body shops to have yellow paint removed,,all the costs fall on the state. Why did this happened ? well as explained by one of the states spokes persons the cost of putting out cones and signs to warn people of the wet paint was to costly ! You ponder that one as i did. BTW,,mine was one of the painted vehicles.

Are you kidding me. These guys could not figure out how to move the animal and continue painting the road? Just think PA. these guys will be management one day. I am sure PA is no different then any other state.

Bob, tell your road guys to come to Missouri the next time they need to borrow some orange cones and barrels. We got 'em by the thousands. They pop up like mushrooms after a warm rain here.

StoogeFan4Ever

Are you kidding me. These guys could not figure out how to move the animal and continue painting the road? Just think PA. these guys will be management one day. I am sure PA is no different then any other state.

I would say PA is probably worse than most states regarding DOT.

@Ron......as a fellow resident of PA I thought the same thing........this HAS to be PENNDOT's finest at work again. Here in eastern PA a few years ago they actually PAVED over a dead deer's HEAD whose body was laying on the shoulder of the road. Not only did they pave over the poor critter, they went back and PAINTED THE WHITE STRIPE. We actually know people who work for PENNDOT and they call it "DUMMDOT".....Typical, useless PENNDOT at work again.......

Robert,

You forgot to mention that once they pop up, they never go away.

Grumpy61, I see you've been here. I'll tell Barrel Bob you said "hi". (Yes folks, MODOT has a mascot named Barrel Bob, and there is a standing sculpture of him by the road where MODOT stores it's ice melt and sand going south on 54 highway just outside of Jefferson City.)

Because it is funny. Where many on here can't come to a consensus of ideology very often we can all laugh about this together. The comments are funny as well.

This is what he gets for trying to play a chicken!

I wonder if they would have painted over a dead deer in the road. We have plenty of those in Georgia.

They would need a minimum of 4 men to paint it by hand. Let's see, they need 2 guys to sit in a truck on the side of the road, one to hold the paint can and one to hold the paint brush. It would probably be cheaper to use the machine.

That would be considered work, siily goose.

You are a varmint. You ate all the grapes from my five grapevines, last year. This year I have a surprise for you.

You forgot to add that when water is available racoons will wash their hands before and after a meal.

That's so they don't leave fingerprints.

They are more hygienic than some human beings then.

OK, raccoons are fine but I'll tell you a true story. One of the older cemeteries here got invaded by chipmunks. They were digging holes in the very old graves and PULLING STUFF OUT. It was in the news and the landscape company responsible for upkeep got in trouble. They were also chipping/damaging the headstones with their lawnmowers. But the chipmunks pulling out small bones was plain creepy.

Another stupid,political statement.

@Pissedoffperson

Well when you want to strip all benefits from state workers they choose not to care about their jobs!

WRONG! We want to strip them of all of their benefits BECAUSE they don't care about their jobs. And the reason they don't care about their jobs is because there is always someone like you willing to pat them on the back and give them a raise regardless of whether they give a @!$%# or not so why on Earth would they?

Backcountry, I am a State worker in Missouri. We are the second lowest paid State workers in the country. We have not had a raise in years. Although you have to screw up pretty bad to get fired, State workers are like any other workers. Some are very good at their job and some don't really care. I run a print shop by myself and do care. My taxes pay for the materials in my shop, so if a mistake is made my taxes just got tossed in the recycle bin. So, I make sure my jobs go to the customer CORRECTLY and not in the trash. Everybody makes jokes about government workers but some actually care about what goes out the door at the end of the day. About benefits...we have medical. No dental, no vision. Many here have to take second jobs to pay for childcare while they are at work.

Ever driven through Oklahoma? Dead skunks all along the interstates and smelling great with every mile you drive. In Arkansas it is the armadillos. Crunchy.

Suds, we got the armadillos in centeral missouri also. A woman at work here told me a strange thing. Armadillos can carry the leprosy bacteria. I thought it was some kind of urban legend she was parroting, but I looked it up and it's true.

Hey now, at least we dont have grass growing up in the middle of the roads anymore. Lol

I will admit that I knew this was going to be in PA before even clicking on it.