Strange, today I just talked with a good friend who spent 20 years at the testing site . He was a crane operator in the machinist union. He told me all about how they prepared testing holes. All the testing equipment was special built and in a platform type structure. He would drop those into the holes which would be under the blast. When test were not happening he spent a lot of time burying all the old cars and rubbish left over from blast. He was telling me about the good old hard to find cars and trucks that were destroyed in the testing. After retirement he worked as a crane operator when Las Vegas rebuilt their freeway system. He is 87 and still getting about pretty good and has no long term radiation problems. I'm sure they were very conscience of being exposed and took steps to prevent it.
If I were as short as he is I don't think I'd be standing out in the road, no one could see him over their hood.