Speeding through Fort Washington Way? Be ready to smile, for you could soon be caught on videotape.

        Area transportation officials are studying whether to install cameras equipped with radar to more closely monitor why trucks continue to wreck in the highway's eastern access point. The devices, however, would not be used for ticketing.

A tractor-trailer on its side blocks traffic Thursday morning on northbound Interstate 71 just south of the Lytle Tunnel. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Ohio officials have already decided to post more speed warning signs, especially northbound, and rumble strips in both directions heading into the tunnel.

        The news comes after two more truck crashes on Interstate 71 either before or inside the tunnel in the past two days. Thursday's crash involved a truck tipping over and losing a 24,000-pound load of copy machines just south of the Lytle Tunnel, which closed northbound lanes of the interstate for about four hours during the morning commute.

        The driver, Paul A. Barie, 45, of Pembroke, N.Y., was cited for failure to control, according to the Cincinnati Police Department.

        The crash brought to 14 the total number of trucks to tip over either before, inside or just after the 1,000-foot tunnel since January 2001 — shortly after Fort Washington Way became fully operational after a $328 million renovation.

        Roughly 100,000 cars and 20,000 trucks a day use the 1.5-mile stretch that connects I-71, I-75 and U.S. 50. While no one has yet been seriously hurt, the previous 13 crashes have caused average delays of 4 hours, 24 minutes.

Thursday's accident spilled copiers onto Fort Washington Way and closed northbound lanes for four hours. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        On Wednesday, another northbound truck lost a load of 100 sheets of drywall trying to negotiate the curve heading into Lytle Tunnel, forcing a 1 1/2-hour closure of one lane of I-71.

        The causes of the recent wrecks have yet to be determined, but preliminary indications point to excessive speed, transportation officials said.

        “Just look at the skid marks left behind, and that would be my guess,” said Joe Bassil, the area's traffic maintenance engineer for the Ohio Department of Transportation. “So we've got to keep at it and find out how we can keep this from happening.”

        Mr. Bassil and others say that speed has been the main culprit in the past truck tippings — the speed limit on Fort Washington Way is 50 mph but is about to be raised to 55 mph.

        Mr. Bassil said a recent speed study indicated that the redesigned highway can handle the greater speed from a structural standpoint. He also said 15 percent of cars headed northbound on Fort Washington Way are driving 70 mph or faster.

        There are advisory signs warning trucks to slow down to 40 mph through the tunnel, however.

        Truck drivers and others have said that the curve, which was made sharper when the highway was redesigned, is unsafe at any speed.

        Cincinnati transportation officials have asked a local engineering firm to examine whether radar cameras would be feasible and where they should be installed. Such devices could link an individual vehicle's speed to its picture — especially handy if that vehicle crashes.

        Such cameras could not be used to issue tickets. That's against Ohio state law, which requires a law enforcement officer to actually witness the violation and ticket the driver.

        ARTIMIS, the Tristate's traffic management system, is in the process installing its own cameras in the tunnel, but those are for monitoring current traffic conditions and would not include radar equipment. The agency has other similar cameras installed at several interstate locations throughout Greater Cincinnati.

        The footage from such a radar camera, which could track the speed of individual vehicles, probably would not be used for evidence if a case went to trial, according to John Deatrick, Cincinnati's transportation director.

        “We're looking into it in our advisory role to ODOT, which oversees the facility now, but we haven't gotten the study back yet,” Mr. Deatrick said.

        Mr. Deatrick said that if ODOT didn't want to use the cameras, one option would be mounting the cameras outside the main Fort Washington Way thoroughfare on a Cincinnati street.

        Mr. Bassil said he is willing to look at such a proposal, but also said such a device wouldn't be as an effective a deterrent against speeding as a police car.

        “It would not be a mechanism to lessen speed, in my opinion, and that's what we're talking about here,” Mr. Bassil said.

        ODOT is planning on posting larger advisory signs heading into the tunnel northbound, much like the ones heading southbound, according to Mr. Bassil, who said ODOT is also planning to add rumble strips that would provide another warning before the tunnel's two entrances.

        He said the agency wanted to be “pretty aggressive” in installing the new devices, which he hopes to have in place by the end of April.

        Mr. Bassil also said ODOT would look at other ideas, including radar cameras as well as other suggestions that include warnings broadcast over CB radio frequencies and radar-equipped signs that flash the speed of oncoming vehicles.

        But he warned of going overboard.

        “We want the drivers to be focusing on the road,” Mr. Bassil said. “But we also want them to be aware of their speeds. It's a sensitive issue, but one we obviously need to find an answer for.”

       E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com
       
       

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