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A crash on I-215 overnight is raising questions about safety when it comes to semi trucks driving in construction zones.
State officials are urging everyone to be cautious and say the trucks are not to blame.
The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) say the accidents they're seeing have one thing in common, and it's not the size of the vehicle. Sgt. Jeff Nigbur, with the Utah Department of Public Safety (DPS), says, "There's just not much room for error in those construction areas, and with people going that fast, it creates quite the danger."
Last night's accident on I-215, in a construction zone near 2200 North, demonstrates that these roads are risky for semis. Witnesses say the driver of a Fed-Ex truck was going at least 70 mile per hour in the 55-mile-per-hour zone. He was pulling two trailers when one overturned. The mess blocked the on-ramp to Redwood Road and reduced traffic to two lanes for several hours. No one was injured. However, the driver likely will face charges including speeding in a construction zone.
Last week on I-80 near 700 East, a semi crashed into a barrier, smashing another vehicle. Nigbur says, "There's no doubt in my mind people get nervous around those truckers, especially when you have double or triple trailers traveling down I-80."
These are just a few of the numerous recent accidents involving semi trucks, but UDOT and UHP are teaming up to remind all drivers, those in commuter vehicles as well, to slow down.
"It's not easy for them to be in these narrow areas than it is for anybody else. I think it's important to understand that 75 percent of the time when a car impacts with a commercial vehicle, it's the driver of the private vehicle that's at fault," said Rick Clasby, UDOT's director of motor carriers.
Both agencies did a study recently along the I-80 construction zone to detect how fast drivers were really going. They discovered that the average driver was going 15 to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit of 55.
UHP suggests giving semis more space because they require longer breaking distances. As for truckers using alternates, UHP says it doesn't expect everyone to comply. "I think what it comes down to in the trucking industry is that time is money, and gas is money, and gas is expensive right now. People are just trying to get to their destinations as soon as they can," says Nigbur.
UHP says they can't technically ban semis from these construction areas unless they got legislative support to do so. But troopers can cite drivers, although they say handing out small infractions won't help solve the problem.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
E-mail: wjohnson@ksl.com
