I caught up to the tractor trailer near 6th Street as it was headed west on the Columbia Street truck route, about where I expected it to be.
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| On the ROUTE again! Just can't wait to get on the... |
3 blocks later, the driver did not turn his rig left onto N. 3rd Street to head out of town, as I had expected. (The driver was a male, as was his passenger.)
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Yet another tractor trailer searching for 2nd Street! |
At the intersection of Columbia & 2nd, where the driver should have continued straight ahead two blocks on the truck route to Front Street, he took a right onto 2nd Street instead, at which point I knew exactly where the truck was headed and that the driver and the truck's GPS system were both doing a commendable job of getting the 18-wheeler there. The driver then crossed State Street, ignoring a small, mostly useless sign hoping to keep delivery trucks off of the steep hill of 2nd Street.
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| OFF the ROUTE again! Just can't wait.. |
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| This sign, and this sign alone, is supposed to keep trucks off the hill of 2nd Street! |
A few hundred feet later on 2nd Street, the truck headed down the steep hill not meant for trucks of any size or length.
The 53-foot tractor trailer and cab made it to the bottom of the hill without destroying any houses or killing anyone, including the truck driver and his passenger. Passing Dock Street, the tractor trailer made its way to Hawthorne Foods a few hundred feet ahead.
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| Probably dropping off some cabbage and/or picking up some sauerkraut |
This was a typical and all too common case of a new-to-Hudson driver using their GPS to get to the 2nd Street extension. (Though why the driver turned off of State Street at 7th is puzzling -- the GPS would have directed him to remain on State all the way to 2nd Street). Neither NO TRUCKS nor TRUCK ROUTE signs mean much to a truck driver relying on GPS for a paycheck.
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| What truck route to Front Street, Dock Street and the 2nd Street extension?? |
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| "Aha! 2nd street, turn right here!" |
It is inexcusable that there isn't one sign at the intersection of Columbia & 2nd (along the truck route!) directing truck drivers to remain on the truck route by heading straight to Front Street while preventing drivers from turning onto 2nd Street. The missing sign(s) there says a lot about how much the mayor, the truck route committee, Shane NO-SHOW Bower and, especially, Robert Perry care about solving this issue that could turn tragic in an instant.
You have to ask: Is City Hall at all serious about keeping trucks off of the 2nd Street hill? Why are there so few signs and why is there zero enforcement of the few existing signs? Why are there so many trucks and tractor trailers driving down that hill? Because a trucker following their GPS to the 2nd Street extension has no reason not to turn onto 2nd Street from Columbia, unaware that they are removing their rig from the truck route. The drivers can't be faulted! The city has done as little as possible to keep truck drivers and their rigs off of 2nd Street!
If the City of Hudson is serious about preventing trucks from heading down the 2nd Street hill while protecting houses and residents at the bottom, there should be two signs for truckers on Columbia Street's truck route as they approach 2nd Street. One should read NO TURNING TRUCKS -- VIOLATORS RISK $300 FINE. The other sign should have an arrow pointing straight ahead that reads either ALL TRUCKS or TRUCK ROUTE. A 10-year-old could understand this. Robert Perry, Shane NO-SHOW Bower and Kamal Johnson apparently do not.
Unsurprisingly, trucks and tractor trailers headed west on State Street (the alternative truck route) also have no reason not to turn onto 2nd Street to head down the hill to make a delivery, so it happens regularly there as well. The only traffic sign that truck drivers are expected to pay attention to there is, of course, a stop sign.
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| "No one is stopping me from turning!" |
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| "The cops never do!" |
Talk about a shitshow of City Hall's own making! And why are no council members up in arms about this, especially the 4th and 2nd ward representatives who share a border along the 2nd Street hill and the extension? The intersections of Columbia & 2nd and State & 2nd are both 100% in the 2nd ward, however. Mohammed Rony and Dewan Sarowar are so much help, aren't they?
It's apparent to me that our truck route has become a monster that City Hall is, and always will be, unable or unwilling to control or do anything about. Still, not nearly enough is being done to keep trucks and tractor trailers off of that steep hill. It is as if the city is welcoming accidents.
Over a year ago, Hudseen published a short article on the issue of trucks using the 2nd Street hill. Here it is: "We Gave Up..."
Ten years ago, in Ithaca, a car carrier tractor trailer lost its brakes entering the city on a steep hill which I am very familiar with. (That hill -- East State Street -- is longer than 2nd street's hill, but not as steep.) A pregnant bartender was killed when the truck, travelling at least 40 mph, slammed into Simeon's restaurant on the edge of the Ithaca Commons. You think this kind of tragedy can't happen on the 2nd Street hill? Just ask anyone who lives at the bottom of 2nd Street! Hell, ask the mayor, our DPW Superintendent Robert Perry or truck route committee members Dewan Sarowar and Mohammed Rony! See if they give a flying crap.
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| Ithaca Commons, 2014 |
Read and SEE more about that truck crash which could have been a whole lot worse: Ithaca runaway truck.
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