Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190287
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
WARNING - DEAD END
Over the years, highway experts say they have tried just about everything to make U.S. 220 at Dudley's Truck Stop safer."And we thought we had it solved," said Bob Strickler, chairman of the Franklin County Transportation Safety Commission.
A fatal accident at the truck stop Tuesday night has Strickler and Virginia Department of Transportation officials perplexed. Raymond Martin Jr., 46, was headed south toward Rocky Mount when his car slammed into the side of a flatbed tractor-trailer blocking both southbound lanes.
Martin, of Rocky Mount, was killed when the top of his car was peeled off as it skidded underneath the flatbed trailer.
Eight hundred feet from the truck stop, Martin, about to crest a hill, had driven past the flashing lights of a sign: "Watch for Entering Vehicles."
But until he got to the top of the knoll, Martin couldn't see that Kevin Wayne Huffman had pulled his flatbed truck across southbound U.S. 220. Huffman was waiting for traffic to clear so he could continue toward Roanoke. Huffman, a Craigsville, W.Va., truck driver, was charged with improperly stopping on a highway.
"If they want to start pointing fingers, I don't see how they can point at that truck driver," said Frankie Perkins, a truck driver from Bassett. "I've been hung up out there myself."
Martin is the fourth person to die on that stretch of road since 1979. Virginia Department of Transportation officials have tried to make the road safer by adding dusk-to-dawn lights so drivers can see trucks pulling out, by installing the flashing lights warning of entering traffic and by giving Dudley's Truck Stop its own crossover.
Until Tuesday evening, there had been no accidents on the stretch of highway since the lights were installed in early 1991. Those lights were put in after two women died as they crashed into a flatbed truck that was making a U-turn about one-quarter mile from Dudley's.
"To tell you the truth, there's not much more we can do," said Mel Quesenberry, assistant resident engineer for the Transportation Department in Franklin County.
Quesenberry said the area still is too rural for the state to add a traffic light or to lower the speed limit. Strickler, a captain with the county Sheriff's Department, said a reduced speed limit for just that section of road would be unenforcable.
A final alternative would be for the state to flatten the knoll, which would give southbound drivers more distance to see trucks pulling out. Quesenberry said flattening the hill is possible, but not likely because of the cost.
The crossover in the middle of the road between Dudley's and Dairy Queen was put in so northbound truckers didn't have to go past the truck stop, then make a U-turn to get back to it. Some have suggested eliminating the crossover, but Strickler said that would just displace turning traffic to the next break in the median.
Quesenberry said the crossover at Dudley's was constructed to be extra wide, so that turning trucks could pull in sideways and stay off the road. Both he and Strickler said police should start routinely ticketing drivers who block the road.
Perkins said it's nearly impossible to pull out of the truck stop in a 64-foot-long truck without having to stop in the crossover to wait for traffic to clear. The flashing warning lights and the distance from the top of the knoll to the crossover should give anybody in a car plenty of time to stop, he said.
"The way I see it, the guy in the car - rest his soul - just was not watching," he said. "You got enough distance right here; there's no reason for anything to happen."
Keywords:
FATALITY