Free Republic

Bath Township, MICHIGAN (WJRT) - (08/21/2018) - The Michigan Department of Transportation tweeted out photos of a motorcycle on I-69 missing its driver. MDOT is using the photos as reminder of the importance of driving safety in work zones as the busy construction season is wrapping up. Their Facebook Post, which has generated thousands of responses and shares, asks if you have lost a motorcycle driving on I-69 in Clinton County Monday. One of the photos, which appears to show tire imprints in wet concrete, serves as a reminder of why it's not a good idea to use closed lanes...

LAS VEGAS — Two Boise men were killed in a crash Wednesday near Las Vegas, media partner CBS 2 News reports. The Nevada Highway Patrol told station KSNV a semi-truck driver admitted he fell asleep before a five-vehicle crash on Highway 93. The crash happened just before 6 a.m., Wednesday at an active construction zone. According to highway patrol, the semi was filled with sand, so the driver could not stop in time, running over the car in front of him. The car was ripped in half, split down the middle. The two men inside were pronounced dead at the...

KIRKWOOD, N.Y. - New York State officials are warning of an alarming increase in reckless driving and crashes in highway work zones this year. The Department of Transportation and State Police held a news conference Wednesday at the Interstate 81 Welcome Center in Kirkwood to spread the message that drivers need to be more careful and considerate when traveling through construction zones. In particular, they want drivers to put down their phones and slow down. The DOT brought a damaged attenuator for a visual example. It was crushed earlier this year along Interstate 87 near Albany. An attenuator is a...

A tractor-trailer traveling southbound on Interstate 15 slammed into the back of another tractor-trailer and Chevrolet pickup Tuesday night near Stoddard Wells Road after failing to yield to stopped traffic, according to a CHP news release. At the time of the collision, which authorities say occurred at approximately 11:57 p.m., traffic was at a standstill due to a full-freeway closure for construction of the D Street Bridge. As traffic was being routed off the freeway at Stoddard Wells Road, 52-year-old Mariano Valle, of Montclair, approached the stopped vehicles in a 2014 Freightliner tractor-trailer traveling at 60 mph. For unknown reasons,...

COLUMBUS — A motorist accused of striking and killing a road construction worker from Barnesville while driving on Interstate 70 in Franklin County last year was sentenced to five years in prison after entering an Alford plea to aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle while under the influence. Edward Torres, 31, of South Solon, was sentenced to five years on the aggravated vehicular homicide charge and 180 days on the OVI charge with the sentences to be served concurrently for a total of five years in prison. Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Schneider also suspended Torres’ driver’s...

HINSDALE — For the second time in just over a month, a tractor-trailer-type vehicle collided with a parked New York State Department of Transportation vehicle on Interstate 86. Both drivers involved in the two-vehicle accident were injured, said Hinsdale First Assistant Fire Chief Greg Church. The incident was reported at 11:11 a.m. Tuesday after a northbound box truck rear-ended a state DOT dump truck a few miles before Exit 27. “They were patching the road,” Church said of state DOT crew. “They had a truck with a lighted arrow and work zone signs up, but for some reason he didn’t...

After a crash that state police called chilling, the agency has issued a reminder about highway safety. Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, state police Troop G in Bridgeport and West Haven fire units and emergency medical services responded to a crash on Interstate 95 northbound near exit 43 in West Haven. The call reported a crash involving two tractor trailers. But when troopers arrived at the scene, they found a more serious crash and closed the highway. The crash involved four tractor trailers and a Toyota Corolla. “Troopers, firefighters and EMS immediately checked on the crash victims and, despite what...

The next time you drive through a highway work zone, or past an accident scene or a disabled vehicle, think about Robert Gensimore. A highway foreman for PennDOT, he was struck by a car and killed last week while setting up flares to warn motorists about an accident on Interstate 99 near Altoona. Gensimore was 45. His funeral is this morning. He was like many of us. Married, two kids, star high-school athlete, active in his community as a volunteer firefighter. He was just doing his job when he died. About 90 PennDOT workers have been killed on the job...

It sounds like an oxymoron, but the state Legislature is taking action to help reduce the risk in one of the more dangerous jobs in road maintenance: driving the safety truck. The trucks are fitted with a warning arrow and a crash barrier on the rear. They are driven slowly to provide protection behind crews cutting grass and painting lines. About once a month, one of these truck drivers is injured when a motorist strikes the vehicle. To address that situation and others, the state House passed a bill last week to allow autonomous versions of the vehicle, known as...

NEENAH, Wis. - At the Winnebago County Highway Department, a memorial for two men is a reminder of two employees and two family members who are gone too soon. "Today it's been 12 years since he's been gone," Susan Tiffany said. Tiffany lost her brother, Dan Melhorn, on March 7, 2006. Melhorn, along with his partner and friend, Marc Neumeyer, got killed working along Interstate-41. "My sister told me and I just went, 'no, no'," Tiffany said. Tiffany said that after her brother's death, she drives extra slow through work zones. She's not alone in hoping others will follow. Local...

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. -- A driver is facing charges after a Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) contractor was struck and killed while setting up a work zone on I-95 in Prince George County Saturday morning.Virginia State Police Sgt. Keeli L. Hill said the crash happened at 11:15 a.m. on southbound I-95 nearly three miles north of Route 602.Hill said 27-year-old Samantha C. Hughes, of Wilmington, North Carolina, was traveling southbound when she looked down and took her eyes off the road.That is when 25-year-old Dustin Michael Warden, of Carson, Virginia, was struck while he was out of his vehicle...

(Spring Run) -- A construction worker was killed when his backhoe was struck by a car on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Fannett Township at 4:15 a.m. Oct. 10, according to Pennsylvania State Police in Newville. Police said Robert W. Marchetti, 63, of Drums, was driving the backhoe loader from the median to the south berm, at mile marker 197.4 between the Willow Hill and Blue Mountain interchanges, when the rear bucket was struck by a 2007 Volkswagen traveling east in the left lane. The driver of the car, Peter J. Awadallah, 21, of Jackson, N.J., and a passenger, were both...

With winter fast approaching, one of the deadliest Kansas City road construction seasons in recent memory is coming to a close. Crews last week removed the concrete safety barriers along the Interstate 435 pavement reconstruction project in Overland Park. ItÂ’s one of several road projects that have caused major crashes, inspiring the department of transportation in Kansas to add rumble strips to the I-435 project. The first season of the two-year project is complete, and crews re-striped the highway over the weekend. The 140,000 vehicles that travel that road every day now can move along the original lanes. The $16.34...