Another week, another semi takes out a traffic light or light pole. Is it me or is this happening more frequently? Last week, traffic backed up while CDOT repaired a truck-damaged pole on Camino del Rio. A couple weeks ago, a truck creamed the traffic light at 32nd Street. The same thing at Main and College numerous times. Ditto at the Peerless gas station. Why can’t truck drivers make a proper right turn? Who pays for all these pole repairs? Sign me “Ed,” as in Driver’s Ed.
On Tuesday morning, Action Line was in the thick of gridlock.
Not in Washington, D.C., But right here at the busy Camino del Rio-Main Avenue intersection.
Traffic was reduced to one lane each way to give room for crews fixing the traffic signal damaged when a large truck attempted – and failed miserably – to turn right onto Main Avenue.
“It’s a sharp right,” said our good friend Lisa Schwantes, ace spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “Pretty much impossible for a large semi to make.”
The good news: CDOT (meaning taxpayers) won’t be stuck with that bill or others caused by boneheaded driving.
When a traffic light gets creamed, the first order of business is to fix the device.
CDOT hustles to make repairs, all the while collecting invoices for equipment, supplies, extra traffic control personnel and whatnot.
“It’s tallied up on a damage billing form and sent to our Risk Management team along with police reports and copies of any tickets issued. From there, the collection and reimbursement process begins,” Lisa said.
Vehicles hitting fixed objects is a shockingly common problem. CDOT has even installed “breakaway pedestals” on poles in harm’s way.
The traffic light at 32nd Street and Main Avenue is one such pole.
The base is designed to snap off quickly when struck or sideswiped. “It protects the wiring and infrastructure,” Lisa said.
Some light poles, particularly the ones that have an arm hanging out over traffic, never have breakaway bases, she added.
The traffic light at Camino and Main is one such pole.
Pole with long arms could fall across the intersection onto surrounding cars, causing much more damages or injuries, Lisa said.
In any case, it’s tricky to track truckers’ traffic trespasses. There just isn’t data for the number of poles hip-checked by semis.
So Action Line hitched a ride on the information superhighway. Not that it goes anywhere.
According to the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration’s website, there were 349,000 “property damage only” (PDO) accidents nationwide involving large trucks and buses in 2014, the latest numbers available, representing 12.5 crashes per 100 million miles driven by all vehicles.
This might provoke trucker truculence, but that’s up more than 50 percent from 2010 and at the highest level since 2005.
La Plata County, however, appears to be going down a different road. CDOT reported 1,199 total crashes in 2015.
This includes property-only wrecks as well as those involving injuries and fatalities, and it includes all types of vehicles, from motorcycles to large trucks.
Be that as it may, the La Plata crash number has dropped nearly 25 percent since a high of 1,597 back in 2004.
So let’s take a trip down memory lane and quote a popular phrase from the hippie era:
Keep on truckin’.
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can ask for anonymity if you call up your favorite radio station and request the groovy 1973 hit “Keep on Truckin’ ” by Eddie Kendricks.
