Friday, April 07, 2000
FWW crackdown widens
BY MARIE McCAIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Driver Jeff Swiney of Cleveland is cited during a crackdown on oversize trucks on Fort Washington Way.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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Authorities caught more than 100 violators during a 24-hour crackdown on Fort Washington Way (FWW) Wednesday and Thursday.
Cincinnati police, the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), and the Internal Revenue Service handed out 160 citations in a blitz that began at 8 p.m. Wednesday and ended at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Cincinnati Police Traffic Unit Sgt. Rudy Gruenke said Thursday that most of the 136 violators of the wide-vehicle ban were semitractor trailer trucks.
But officials also stopped three out-of-state school buses with children on board, he said.
Cincinnati police enforced the wide-vehicle ban, the IRS enforced federal fuel tax requirements for truckers, the highway patrol and PUCO enforced vehicle weight and federal safety regulations, officials said.
Violating the wide-vehicle ban means a mandatory appearance in court, along with a minimum $250 fine.
For more than a month,
warnings posted along the electronic message boards over area interstates have been absent.
But officials were quick to say that the removal had little to do with the results of the crackdown.
“Signs announce (the ban) 22 miles from Cincinnati,” Sgt. Gruenke said. “There is no reason they shouldn't have seen it.”
The ban will remain until August. Officials said they may do several more crackdowns before then.
Besides wide-vehicle bans, motorists were cited or arrested for speeding, unsafe vehicles, and a hazardous materials violation.
One motorist was also arrested on an out-of-state fel ony warrant.
Since July 1998, when the ban was instituted, more than 3,500 tickets have been given.
There have been accidents as a result of people ignoring the ban, officials said. Crash cleanup fees have ranged from $500 to $17,000.
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