By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Traffic on Smokey Hollow Road has increased since the new section of Corridor H opened up and it has caught the attention of officials. Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau asked Director of the Tucker County Office of Emergency Management Kevin White and Tucker County Sheriff Jake Kopec about the increase at the July 8th Commission meeting.
“At the top of Parsons Mountain, on Smokey Hollow Road, we have a lot more traffic right now because the GPS system is the shortest route now is to take that exit now at the top of the mountain and come down Smokey Hollow Road,” Rosenau said.
While Rosenau blamed GPS for the increase in traffic on the single lane road, it could also come down to locals taking a short cut to the new highway, as well. The situation led to a 20 foot camper trying to turn around after realizing it could not navigate it, Rosenau said. He said the County works with the GPS companies in an attempt to get tractor trailers off roads such as Sugarland, Limestone, etc.
“Did we ever come to a conclusion or a person we could talk to to alleviate that?” Rosenau said.
Rosenau said that, as locals, people are aware on a one lane road, if a wide spot is available and a car is coming, the driver is to pull over. Many of the vehicles that are now coming down Smokey Hollow Road, are not yielding and driving much too fast for conditions, often driving cars into ditches or potentially off the side.
“These people from out of state, they don’t know the area, they don’t know our customs for driving, pulling over and stopping, they’re often times rude, they’re rude drivers to the point that they will come here and just bald tires and fly and just wreck right over the guard rails,” Kopec said.
White said there are many legalities involved. A road cannot be removed from a GPS because addresses must be able to be found. However, roads can be designated as truck routes and non truck routes, he said.
“The problem is, you know how much time we have spent putting up signs in all different places, even getting signs up that they would not put up, the trucks with the X that they said we will not do that,” White said. “They finally did it. We got flashing lights on that. We spent many years working on that project to get it where its at now.”
According to White, much of the problem lies with trucking companies and dispatchers. Drivers are pressured to take the shortest routes and quickest times, even if it is dangerous or banned. Drivers are given specific routes and are not allowed to deviate from those routes, even if they are not designated truck routes. Deviation from the route comes with penalties for the drivers. The routes are determined by someone behind a computer who has no idea what the road looks like, has never driven it and is only looking at a screen.
“The problem is that if you talk to a lot of truck drivers that end up on those roads is their dispatcher told them that this is the route they had to go,” White said. “If they don’t go that exact route, they get penalized on their pay for not following the route. Because, they base it off of the mileage, fuel usage and all that. There’s a person that sits behind the computer and that’s what they do, they send Barbie here and Barbie has to take this route because it is the cheapest, best route for their truck system to go.”
Kopec was asked if there was any way that the companies could be cited, instead of or along with the drivers. He said that they cited every driver for two years and the problem, actually got worse.
“Yes, we have cited them,” Kopec said. “We actually just spent two years, just writing every single one of them a ticket and it actually got worse. These people are from Atlanta, from Jamaica believe it or not, and they don’t tell their buddies. It don’t change anything.”
Kopec said that drivers have even been asked if they saw the three signs with a truck with a big X through it and the drivers reply that they were just staring at the GPS.
“The formalities of the new age trucker, they are locked into that GPS,” Kopec said. “It isn’t Uncle Frank in the 1970’s where he had a gear shift and a Randall McNally sitting on the seat, watching the signs and use common sense.”
The truckers are not locals, Kopec said. Many are also frightened. Most of the truckers are used to straight, multi-lane interstates, not one and two lane, winding West Virginia country roads with sheer mountain drop offs and hair pin turns.
“The truckers themselves are not from here,” Kopec said. “Usually when we encounter them, they are scared to death. They have never even drove on roads like this. Its their first or second time being in this area.”
Kopec said many of the truckers are headed to the Kingsford plant.
Rosenau said the Commission had an upcoming meeting with the Department of Highways. He said he was going to bring up the subject of speed limits on Smokey Hollow Road. As well as, the subject of well established signage on the road, as well.
“I’m telling you, someone is going to get hurt,” Rosenau said.
White agreed and said he felt the road saw the same amount of traffic in a day, that it generally saw in a year. Kopec said that the County might be able to put up narrow road and local traffic only designation.
Rhett Dusenbury, Senior Field Representative for Representative Riley Moore, weighed in on the issue, as well. He proposed a category system that the GPS companies could use to classify roadways.
“Until we get the GPS folks to do like a Category One to a Category Five Road. Category One is four lanes with emergency lane with grass median, all the way down to Category Five, which is a pig path and a two lane road is Category Three and a four lane road is Category Four,” Dusenbury said.
Dusenbury said if roads were classified, roads could be blocked on GPS from heavy truck use, based on classification.
“Big trucks go One trough Three and small trucks go all five,” Dusenbury said.
Rosenau said that would have to be a federal law. It was not something the County, nor the WVDOH could pass. It would need to be implemented nationwide to have any real effect.
“I don’t feel that we have as much of a problem on the roads with trucks as we used to,” White said. “We still have it. It still happens weekly, but it doesn’t happen daily, as it used to. I think it is making a difference. We haven’t fixed the problem; we will continue to work on it, but I think what we’ve done, petitioning the state to put up the signage and all of that, I think has made a big difference.”
