Highway debris causing deadly accidents
ATLANTA (AP) — A clothes dryer that tumbled off the back of its new owner’s pickup caused an accident that killed a father driving his two sons home from a baseball game.
A state roads worker was killed when he was hit by a vehicle while trying to remove a mattress that had been discarded on the side of a highway.
Both fatalities occurred in the past week in the Atlanta area. Both highlight a growing problem with dangerous debris appearing on the nation’s highways, increasing the risk of accidents, hefty car-repair bills, serious injuries and death.
An estimated 25,000 of the nation’s 3 million crashes each year are caused by debris that comes from either a truck or a car, according to preliminary results of a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
“It’s something that maintenance and enforcement people and people who transport cargo of all sorts … should take very seriously,” said Peter Kissinger, the foundation’s president.
In the Atlanta area alone, more than 6,500 tons of debris were collected last year, including refrigerators, ladders and furniture. The Georgia Department of Transportation expects to spend more than $17 million this year for debris removal from the state’s roadways.
“People seem to be comfortable with throwing things out of their cars or not securing the loads on their trucks,” said Christian Harris, a state transportation spokesman. “That’s just not acceptable.”
Aside from the junk that’s tossed on highways, there’s also the “roadway gators” — large strips of rubber tread that peel off the tires of 18-wheelers. Such debris increases the risk of accidents when people make evasive maneuvers.
Kevin Bakewell, senior vice president of AAA Auto Club South, said the organization’s research branch undertook the study because states have done little to collect data on crashes and deaths caused by road debris.
“It’s not a typical part of the accident report form,” he said.
Deaths and injuries linked to highway debris are an “ongoing problem,” said Lt. Kenneth Peterman, commander of the Georgia State Patrol’s specialized collision reconstruction team.
He cited one accident where the ramps of a tractor-trailer fell off, smashed through the windshield of a car and killed a driver. In another case, a large machine fell off a truck and killed two of three college students who were riding in a car that struck it.
“Every case we’ve had is preventable,” Peterman said. “The driver could have made sure the load was strapped. It’s senseless.”
The most recent cases have been linked to appliances that weren’t properly tied down or where people may have used the highways as a dump for unwanted household items.
Michael Ronald Hall, 43, an assistant dean at Clark Atlanta University, was killed Monday night while driving home from a ball game with his two boys when he swerved to avoid a dryer that fell out of a pickup.
Hall’s car flipped several times on busy Interstate 75. His children, ages 6 and 9, were treated for injuries.
Police have traced the dryer to a Home Depot in Jonesboro, and obtained surveillance video from the store showing a man with a young boy purchasing the dryer and loading it onto a Ford F-150 pickup.
When caught, the dryer’s owner will face possible negligence charges for failing to notify authorities.
Thursday, a state Department of Transportation worker was killed and another injured while they were picking up a mattress and other debris discarded on busy Interstate 20 in downtown Atlanta. The driver of the vehicle that struck and killed 33-year-old Priscilla Donald, suffered back injuries and was charged with vehicular homicide.
All states have laws that require loads to be securely lashed down, Bakewell said
“One thing that could be done immediately is more enforcement,” he said.
Florida’s Transportation Department and Highway Patrol have improved communications in an effort to speed up the removal of highway junk.
“We can’t check every strap, but we do enforce the laws when we observe violations,” Georgia’s Peterman said.