A driver who wants to drive quickly past a barrier and almost hits road barrier Orrin. According to him, this kind of situation occurs almost every day: “Nowadays everyone is on their phone while driving and people have no patience at all.”
Orrin van Poppel started about 15 years ago as a road cleaner. “My first job was in a bronze foundry. I helped make art sculptures. When I had to stop there, I started as a road barrier from one day to the next.” And suddenly he, without experience, was on the highway. “I remember my first day at work well. I was allowed to start immediately on the A27. There you are, without experience. That was quite exciting.”
“People often get angry when they have to wait.”
And Orrin still feels that tension, because he always has to pay attention in his work. “It often happens that drivers don’t see me and I almost get hit. People often get angry when they have to wait because I’m busy somewhere. But they don’t realize that I’m there to help them. I make sure new asphalt can be laid or that a hole will be made in the road. Isn’t that worth the five-minute detour?”
But it’s not just about angry drivers. Orrin also has to deal with other intense situations. “I remember well that I was on the A13 near Rotterdam. We were working there and there were a cherry picker and an arrow truck. Moments later a drunk driver collided with our arrow truck. He was taken away by the police and at that moment saw “I suddenly realized that there was also a dog in the car. The police had not seen it. You all experience it. It is sometimes a great adventure.”
“I can skip the gym.”
Orrin’s work is different every day. Sometimes he has to place a detour and the other day he makes sure a road can open again. And he often has to do heavy, physical work. “I regularly lift a 33-kilo plate with each hand. Then suddenly you are carrying 66 kilos. So I can skip the gym,” laughs Orrin. “Sometimes I’m so tired that I’m already in bed at seven in the evening.”
Dangerous situations and physical work, yet it is a job that Orrin is very happy with. “You have a lot of freedom and I never have walls around me. Wonderful! If I were behind a screen in the office, I would bounce in all directions. I need this work, because I can be busy. And you come everywhere !”
In the new YouTube series ‘Beunen met Lola’, Lola tests out special professions. In the video below you can see if she manages to be a road ripper for one day: