Semi-Trucks Causing Trouble Downtown | Video

Evan Kruegel | 7/6/2012

Semi-Trucks passing through Williston are mandated to stay on the truck route, steering them clear of downtown and residential areas. But as traffic volumes increase throughout the city, more and more truckers are making wrong turns, and ending up in compromising positions.

"It`s a daily problem, it`s a daily occurrence. Every day we get reports from concerned citizens about a semi in residential or business district off the truck route or our patrol officers are responding to a crash involving a semi", Said Williston Police Detective David Peterson.

Peterson believes it`s not a matter of truckers trying to sneak from one side of town to the other, but simply of them making wrong turns and having nowhere to turn around.

"More often than not, it`s a case of just not knowing where the truck route is as opposed to a shortcut, I believe the semi drivers would rather take the truck route than negotiate through the narrow roadways"

The city`s streets were not designed for vehicles of that size, so the damage they cause can be considerable.

"They`re not designed to hand the length of those trucks either, which is happening with traffic signals bring hit, Fire hydrants being hit, street light poles being hit. They`re not designed to handle the length and width of those things and then you mix in the residential traffic and that volume increase, the trucks cannot make those turns if the intersections are full of smaller vehicles, and they`re not designed to do it.", Said Public Works Maintenance Superintendent Dave Bell.

The city has simply stopped repairing certain bent poles around the downtown area. Every time they replace one, another truck comes by and knocks it loose. Police have started to issue more tickets, but the damage to the downtown area is already evident. If truckers continue to navigate narrow downtown streets, semi-accidents and road damage will undoubtedly continue.

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