Thursday, April 01, 1999
Ft. Washington Way under crackdown
54 drivers collect tickets on way through town
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Trucker Gary McCutcheon said he didn't know about the ban on Fort Washington Way, which prohibits vehicles wider than 7 feet. Honestly. Wednesday, he found out.
“I guess you can call me stupid, but I honestly didn't know,” said Mr. McCutcheon who was delivering transmission oil to Chillicothe, Ohio, for Paducah, Ky.-based Usher Transport Inc. “I just feel like I'm being picked on.”
He was among 54 drivers cited during Wednesday's crackdown on truck ban violators — the biggest effort to date, said Cincinnati Officer Steve Edwards. In addition to fines of $200 to $500, Cincinnati Police, assisted by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, handed out mandatory court dates. Violators could be sentenced to up to 30 days in jail. .
Eight separate citations were issued for everything from overweight and unsafe vehicles to log book and fuel tax violations; Six trucks were ordered out of service for being mechanically unsafe.
The truck ban began last summer at the start of the $146.9 million Fort Washington Way reconstruction.
While Mr. McCutcheon worried about the financial repercussions of being stalled for about two hours — he estimates he lost $100-$150 in wages — others focused on fairness.
Charles Wilson of 1st Carrier Corp. of Circleville, Ohio, said drivers should be cited only “if you're intentionally trying to be where you shouldn't. (But) it doesn't really matter if it's fair or not — I'm still going to have to pay for it.”
The Chillicothe man, who was delivering produce to a Shoney's distribution center in Cincinnati, said it was too late for him to turn by the time he saw the sign notifying him of the ban.
Paul Gearhart was driving 24 students from First Presbyterian Church of Southport in Indianapolis to visit Sawyer Point and do some sight-seeing when he was waved down.
“I didn't see it,” said Mr. Gearhart, who said he was too busy trying to make sure he got off at the right exit. “Oops.”
When an officer told him that he is to appear in court April 21, he laid his head on his door in disbelief.
Jason Cross was on his way to Pennsylvania to drop off a truck with a new blower system when he was stopped.
“No, I didn't know nothing about this right here. I ain't even from this area,” said the Arkansas resident, who works for Single Source Transportation Co.
To prove to police that he wasn't aware of the truck ban, he pulled out the route his company told him to take. He said there was no mention of the truck ban in Cincinnati.
“I can't believe this. How are we supposed to know about that?” he asked an officer. “There ain't no way around this (citation)?”
“Unfortunately not,” the officer responded.
Mr. Cross said there's no way he can get back to Cincinnati for his April 16 court date. “This is dumb. This is stupid. Really, it is,” he said.
John Niehaus, principal traffic engineer for downtown-based Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., said his company posted nearly three dozen signs on Interstate 71 north and south between I-275 and Florence warning truckers about the ban.
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