Most residents of Webster County at one time or another have been crowded onto a berm or forced partially or even fully off the road by those long tractor trailer trucks. It is a simple fact of life on our curvy roads here in the County.
What most folks may not realize is that all roads in Webster County have certain length limits imposed by West Virginia law and Department of Transportation regulations. These laws and regulations in most cases, if enforced, would prohibit those long tractor trailers from being on the County's roads.
If the laws were enforced, a lot of business in the County would grind to a halt. Because of that consequence, the length limit laws are rarely enforced. When they are enforced, it is usually because an over-length vehicle was in an accident, a cause of which was the length of the vehicle.
While we do not advocate to shut down business in the County by the enforcement of these laws, we do believe that some truckers of these over-length vehicles need to exercise more caution in the curves.
Simply view the above video for an example of why caution is needed. In the video, the tractor trailer on more than one occasion crosses the center line. Near the end of the video, the tractor trailer comes around a blind curve up a hill and was more than halfway across the other lane. Because of the guardrail, any oncoming traffic would have either smashed into the tractor trailer or at least hit the guardrail. Just a mere five seconds after the video ended, a line of three cars crested this hill and would have faced this very dilemma. Five seconds meant the difference between an accident and going about your business without any clue of what could have happened.
The specific weight, width, height, and length limit regulations can be found at the following link:
http://www.transportation.wv.gov/employees/DOHAdminProcs/DOH0314.pdf
To view a map of the length limits on highways in West Virginia, click on this link:
http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/programplanning/preliminary_engineering/Documents/vehiclesize.pdf
To view a map of the weight limits on the highways in West Virginia, click on this link:
http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/programplanning/preliminary_engineering/Documents/Gross%20Weight%20Limit.PDF
I've been complaining about this for 20 years because I have been pushed off the berm to avoid a crash several times. I live above a curve on Rt. 15 in Webster County--from my front porch, I have witnessed all the big trucks left of center daily. I've complained to the law enforcement in the past but to no avail! I thought policing the roads was one of their duties???? Is is just plain laziness, not caring or buy-outs??
ReplyDeleteAll for one and one for all ,no mobile homes, campers or double wide should not be allowed either.
ReplyDeleteSpecial permits are available for over-sized vehicles, such as moving mobile homes, and special regulation and fees accompany such a move (like special flaggers to warn oncoming traffic)-unlike the over-length semi-trucks that come without warning.
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