Steel-rod spill flattens 30 cars’ tires on I-95
The truck driver whose unsecured load of steel rods caused 30 vehicles to suffer flat tires Monday morning on northbound Interstate 95 between Lantana Road and Okeechobee Boulevard may have gotten away without a trace.
A Florida Highway Patrol spokesman said there are no witnesses to the spill that made the early-morning commute a slog for many drivers from Lantana to West Palm Beach. FHP spokesman Lt. Alvaro Feola said troopers have no description of the driver or the truck.
Most of the damage caused
by the steel rods along the 7-mile stretch was limited to flat tires, although some vehicles sustained damage to the rims of their tires, Feola said. No one was injured.
“There’s no way to know if the driver knew what happened,” said Feola, who said anyone who witnessed the spill should contact FHP. “Nobody saw anything.”
Even if the identity of the driver is determined, the person may face nothing more than a ticket for failing to secure the load he or she was hauling, Feola said.
The citation is considered a nonmoving violation, so the driver would not even face the possibility of having points added to his or her driver’s license.
Under state law, a first offense for traveling with an unsecured load results in a minimum $200 fine, and a second violation within five years can lead to the suspension of a person’s driver license for a minimum of one year.
An unsecured load that leads to a serious-injury crash results in a criminal traffic citation and is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine, 60 days in custody or both.
The spill happened about 6 a.m., Feola said. Troopers were still scouring the shoulder of I-95 for debris at 9 a.m.
Road debris is a major problem on I-95 in Palm Beach County. According to the Florida Department of Transportation, more than 175 tons of litter is collected annually on the interstate from Boca Raton to Jupiter.
A 22-year-old aspiring musician from West Palm Beach was seriously injured on April 29, 2016, when a piece of metal — possibly part of another vehicle’s brake drum — flew through his 2005 BMW’s windshield and struck him in the face while he was driving on I-95 in Boca Raton.
Holden Amory survived but was forced to undergo hours of reconstructive surgery for a broken jaw, a broken cheekbone and a damaged eye socket. Authorities never found the other vehicle involved.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that in 2010 — the most recent year for which statistics are available — road debris caused about 51,000 crashes, with 10,000 injured people and 440 fatalities.
A study by AAA said debris resulted in 200,000 crashes, about 39,000 injuries and more than 500 deaths from 2011 through 2014 across the country. The number of crashes rose by 40 percent compared to 2001, when AAA first studied the problem.
AAA also found that crashes involving debris were four times more likely to occur on interstate highways. About 37 percent of deaths resulted from a driver crashing while attempting to swerve and avoid hitting an object.
All 50 states have laws that make unsecured loads illegal, but only 16 states — including Florida — list jail time as a possible punishment for offending drivers.