flagman

He was working as a flagman near Zabriskie Point, where road repairs require traffic control.

The track owner at the time, Tony Hulman, widened the pit lane entrance, eliminated the angled inside wall in the fourth turn and moved the flagman from the inside near the front of pit road to a starter’s stand above the cars and the outside wall, where it remains today.

Smith had surged into the lead as the flagman threw the white to signify one lap to go, but it was at the exact moment an 18-truck crash behind him triggered the yellow caution light.

If the one-lane construction zone was too long for the flagmen to see each other, one handed a flag to the last driver permitted through to give to the other flagman.

But after hearing recent cases that included a flagman — positioned at a station platform to warn train operators that a work zone was ahead — falling asleep, alternate Commissioner Robert Lauby questioned whether Metro could wait months or a year for revised safety rules and said the commission should work with Metro to expedite the changes.