Better driving, road repairs could save lives

Nearby Berks County holds an unfortunate lead among counties: Forty-four roadway deaths involving heavy trucks from 2012 through 2018. A number of factors are to blame — at least some of which are within drivers’ power to prevent.

Kathryn M. Schurtz, 35, and Joseph D. Kearney, 42, both of Jersey City, N.J., were traveling Interstate 78, on their way to be married in Pittsburgh, when they encountered traffic from a crash earlier on the often congested stretch between Lenhartsville and Hamburg.

They stopped in time but a tractor-trailer driver did not. State police say he was distracted by his cellphone and didn’t see the line of vehicles stopped ahead of his truck. It struck the couple’s SUV, causing a fiery chain reaction crash.

Officials say speed and drowsiness were the key factors in a May 2014 fatal crash involving a tractor-trailer on I-78, this time killing three people. Prosecutors said the truck driver had flown in from Arizona and probably fell asleep before crashing his rig into a line of vehicles, trying to avoid a disabled vehicle in the left lane.

The driver of a tractortrailer in a November 2014 crash that killed two people and injured nine others blamed sudden drowsiness. His truck ran into a string of vehicles on Route 222 in Maidencreek Township.

While the fault in these cases was with the truck drivers, that’s not always the case. Other fatal crashes, even ones involving trucks, are triggered by poor driving near big rigs.

“Everybody blames the truck drivers,” as Alan D. Piper, Berks County transportation planner, noted in a recent Media News Group story about fatal crashes involving heavy vehicles. “Trucks can’t react as fast as cars.”

The message of police and other public safety officials regarding highway driving boils down to some simple tips highlighted by these fatal crashes: Slow down, pay attention to the road at all times, stay awake, and avoid aggressive maneuvers.

As the examples above demonstrate, truck crashes can be deadly. And that makes driving safely near them especially important. And, as Piper noted, leaving some margin for error when driving around trucks is important as well.

“Truck drivers are no different than other drivers,” Piper said. “If drivers aren’t following the rules and paying attention, they will have accidents. The hard part is to stop people from speeding.”

There’s another factor that plays a big role in many crashes, fatal and otherwise, involving numerous vehicles: Many of the major roads in our region are carrying far more vehicles than imagined when they were built.

Piper made that point as well, noting roadwork being done.

“The goal is to increase safety and reduce congestion,” he said. “The roads were not designed for this type of congestion.”

A shift in federal funding toward upgrading interstate highways addresses part of

Drivers should do their part by obeying speed limits, avoiding distractions and making sure they’re awake before getting behind the wheel.

the problem.

A $260 million construction project on Interstate 78 from Hamburg east to Lehigh County will improve that stretch. It carries an estimated 41,000 vehicles daily, 30% of them. With no shoulders in highly congested areas, that’s one dangerous stretch of road.

And fortunately, work is already underway at intersections where the traffic moves too fast for safety.

But as everyone knows, our highways get congested far too often and are in need of work to make them safer as well. That’s why PennDOT should find a way — either by persuading Washington to send more money or finding some state funds — to direct some money to potentially lifesaving roadwork here in Pennsylvania.

And drivers should do their part by obeying speed limits, avoiding distractions and making sure they’re awake before getting behind the wheel.