Tag Archives: Alabama State Troopers

Roadscapes Wednesday: Almost Went to Jail For Roadgeeking

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Roadscapes Geek Alabama

On Saturday I experienced some traffic trouble on Interstate 20 around the Brompton exit.  While going to Birmingham on Saturday, before reaching the Brompton exit or Exit 147 on I-20, I got into the left lane and yes, a car had spinned out and hit the barrier wall.  The driver of the wrecked car was smart to get out of the way and pull onto the right shoulder before another driver hit him.  It was raining hard and the visibility was very poor.  After doing the activities in the Birmingham Metro, I was driving back on I-20 and when I hit the Brompton exit, traffic came to a dead stop!  I decided to ride on the right shoulder to exit and pulled over to get out of the car and take some pictures!

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While I was on the Kelly Creek Road bridge taking some pictures.  A police officer from one of the local cities, I forget which one, threatened to throw me in jail because I was roadgeeking.  The last time I checked, walking along a public roadway is allowed and taking pictures of roads is not against the law.  If there was not traffic backup because of yet another wreck at this stretch of I-20, I would not be there taking pictures.  I don’t have a bad relationship with most police officers.  The Alabama State Troopers and the county sheriff’s knows what me and other people do and roadgeeking is something they don’t have a problem with as long as we are not putting ourselves or other drivers in danger.

But I always have trouble with city police officers.  I have already encountered some city police officers in a very bad way.  One police officer from the city of Oxford threatened me about a year ago because I taking road pictures from my car and I was pulled over on the right shoulder.   A police officer from the city of Anniston threatened me over a year ago because I was taking road pictures while standing on the side of the road.  The last time I checked, I thought a road was public right-of-way?

It seems like I always have trouble with city police officers.  And this officer from either Leeds or Moody threatened me with jail.  You know something, if ALDOT would not have really bad standards about their highways, I would not be around taking pictures and talking about it!  Speaking of ALDOT, why in the world would they shut down a critical detour route along U.S. 78 while construction is still going on along Interstate 20?

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Interstate 20 from exit 147 to exit 156 in St. Clair County has been under construction for the last 10 years!  And this stretch is prone to wrecks that blocks the interstate for hours at a time.  U.S. 78 is closed from Cook Springs Road to the Chula Vista exit for a bridge replacement.  Unless the bridge was about to collapse, this should have waited until the I-20 construction was finished!

I was at the bridge closure and caught this double tractor-trailer truck at the bridge closure.  The driver took U.S. 78 to get around the blocked interstate and got stuck.  Many car drivers also had to turn around at the bridge closure because they were trying to get around the blocked interstate.  The truck driver had to take apart his double tractor-trailer truck and turn around!  This is dangerous!

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I guess ALDOT is wanting to anger the drivers even more to close down the detour route for when I-20 is blocked.  There is hardly any signage for the closure, there are only two barricades saying road closed to thru traffic and some detour U.S. 78 signs.  There needs to be better signage along I-20 to tell drivers that U.S. 78 is closed.

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Most of the three-lane project along the eastbound lanes of I-20 are now complete.  Here are some pictures.  Yes, the road lines needs to be repainted!

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The Interstate 65 Lacon Mountain Nightmare

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Parts of Alabama had several inches of snow fall on Thursday.  But this post is not about the snowfall, this post is about the breakdown of communication that resulted in numerous people being stuck on Interstate 65 for up to 18 hours!  I-65 along the Cullman / Morgan county line climbs up Lacon Mountain.  From mile 319 to mile 317 Interstate 65 goes through several curves, tight and narrow bridges, and the highway climbs up a mountain.  Lately this stretch of Interstate has had several big accidents that causes traffic nightmares.

laconFor up to 18 hours on Thursday and Friday morning, people were stranded on Interstate 65 in the Cullman area.  From around 12 noon Thursday to Friday morning, people were stuck on the interstate as the highway was iced over and cars could not get up or down Lacon Mountain.  Also stopping traffic were accidents involving cars and trucks.  Here are some pictures from social media.

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The traffic jams started when heavy snow fell and covered the roads.  Then some tractor-trailers jackknifed and blocked the road.  The snow only fell for a few hours but I have to wonder why it took so long to get traffic moving again.  Sure, it would take a few hours to clean up the accident and get salt and sand down on the road.  But why did it take around 12-18 hours to get traffic moving again?  Being stuck that long is no excuse people!

I have kept up with the comments on social media and on forums and I am not happy seeing people sitting on the Interstate for up to 18 hours.  People were beginning to run out of gas to keep warm in their cars.  And can you imagine the parents with small children and infants.  Most cars probably had little or no food or water.  And where could go to the bathroom if you had to go.  Sure, some people could do #1 behind a car or a tree.  But where could you do #2?

The Red Cross opened up a shelter at the Cullman Civic Center but how could people get there if they could not get off the Interstate?  I have seen some comments saying the state troopers were going to ticket people on 4-wheelers that were trying to give people food and water.  And speaking of the state troopers, several people commented online saying they are staying in their warm cars instead of checking on people.  And the Cullman County and CulIman City Police were not requested to help the stranded motorists.  I hope that is not true.

And now since they say the Interstate is open, truckers are causing a big problem.  I have seen comments online saying truck drivers have gone to bed in the cab right in the middle of the Interstate blocking travel lanes.  And car drivers are having to honk their car horns and knock on the truck doors to wake up the drivers.  At times the police are having to sound their sirens to wake up the drivers.  Yes, there are log book hours for the truckers.  They have to stop the truck after ‘x’ amount of hours. If not it is a logbook violation and goes against the company safety score which is a big deal.  This can also cause the driver to be fined or fired.  But at the same time the truck drivers should not be sleeping in the middle of the Interstate!  People want to get off the Interstate, not spend another six hours stuck.

Even after I-65 was cleared, some motorists were stranded on the highway because they could not get around trucks that were parked on the Interstate.  The police should have forced the trucks to get off the highway so stuck motorists could get off the highway at the next exit to get food and gas.  The police should also force drivers to get off the highway ahead of the traffic jam so they would not get stuck as well.  Clearly there was a huge lack of communication here!  The police and ALDOT should have forced all traffic to get off at the next exit like they do in states out west when road conditions are poor.  Being stranded could kill someone!

So after everything is cleaned up and the finger-pointing is over.  What should be done to stop the multiple wrecks happening at Lacon Mountain?  I have a couple of ideas which I think ALDOT and the state troopers should enforce.  One, no trucks should be allowed in the left lane through the Lacon Mountain I-65 stretch.  Getting stuck behind a truck going 55 in the left lane to pass another truck going 50 in the right lane should be banned.  Two, I would reduce the speed limit in that area to 55.  Having a speed limit of 70 through the Lacon Mountain stretch is too fast because the fast speed is causing way too many wrecks.  If ALDOT can reduce the speed limit along I-20 to 55 because someone got killed by a pothole.  They can do the same thing along I-65.

Eventually ALDOT will need to redo the stretch of I-65 through Lacon Mountain.  The bad curves, narrow bridges, steep hills, and high traffic counts are too much for I-65.    I wonder how many more accidents, injuries, and deaths will happen before something is done to fix the problem?  I also feel bad for all the drivers who had to suffer for up to 18 hours in the cold weather stuck on I-65.  Someone should be held responsible for this; this would have not happened in other states.

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Roadscapes Wednesday: Move Over Law

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Many states have a move over law on the books.  The move over law is for the protection and safety of emergency workers doing their jobs on a highway.  The law is for anyone who is a police officer, fire fighter, EMS worker, tow truck worker, DOT workers, utility workers, or anyone pulled over on the side of the road that has emergency lights flashing.  The law makes drivers on a divided highway to move over one lane when you come up to anyone with flashing lights pulled over on the shoulder.  If there is too much traffic you must slow down while going by the people pulled over.  On a 2-lane road you must slow down when you encounter someone pulled over.  This video shows why the move over law is on the books.

The law in Alabama is simple to follow.  This is the law from the Alabama State Troopers.  Upon approach of a stopped emergency vehicle with flashing lights, you should:

On highways with four or more lanes: Move over one lane. If it is unsafe to move over, slow down to 15 miles below posted limit.

On two-lane roads: Move over as much as possible without leaving lane, slow down to a speed that is at least 15 mph below posted speed limit.

IF the posted speed limit is 20 mph or below, slow down to 10 mph.

And ALDOT does put out signs along roads telling about the law.  But the signs are not that great.  The signs say “move over for stopped emergency vehicles when clear.”  But those signs do not tell you to slow down on 2-lane roads or if there is too much traffic.  Plus the signs are too small and jumbled together to read at high speeds.

I think ALDOT can make a better sign that is bigger and easier to read at high speeds.  Many other states with move over laws have much better signs that is easy to read and explains the move over law perfectly.

So here are my sign re-designs for the move over law in Alabama.  Notice I put a yellow bar on the top of the sign so it has a better chance to be read and seen.  And the signs are bigger so it can be read at high speeds.  Here is my sign for divided highways.

And here is my sign for 2-lane highways.  I did not put “move over” on these signs because it is hard to move over on a 2-lane road.

This is something ALDOT can do to make the move over law better understood with drivers across the state.  The excuse, if a driver is pulled over because they did not see the sign and move over will not be valid anymore.  This is something that will save lives in Alabama.  The question is will ALDOT do this; because I already have a great negative track record with them.

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A Couple of Rants

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On Wednesday my mother and I went to the Pelham Civic Center for a job fair hosted by Employment Seeker.  And we were both disappointed.  

Many people turned out dressed professionally for this job fair.  And we both thought there would have been over 600 jobs available like the local news had said.  But that figure was blown out of the water.  There was not 600 jobs there; in fact some of the employers never showed up!  Each of us was given a list of the employers at this job fair.  Let’s highlight it.

The employers available was worse than the same job fair I went too last October.  This was a disappointment that this job fair pretty much sucked!  The only employer that I feel I have a chance was Best Buy.  Their people were very nice at the job fair.  But many of the other employers said “go online” or never had a great conversation with the people.  If I am still unemployed next fall I hope this job fair can be better!  This would be the end of the post but going there and back also turned into a major hassle!

ALDOT decided to close a lane down at the Coosa River bridge on Interstate 20 with little warning!  Before we got to this traffic backup I noticed something that was not good at all.

Someone at ALDOT decided to tar out the white line for miles on I-20.  This is not much of a problem during the daytime; but at night who can see the lines on the road?  While you are at it; go ahead and tar out the remaining lines on the road.  All this is going to do is cause a major accident; oops!  Too late.

This easily reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer paints over the lines on the road with black paint to make the lanes wider.  This only causes a major problem.

This is just a major problem ALDOT continues to have.  Let’s do stupid things to cause accidents and wrecks.  And when someone gets killed because of poor roads; we lower the speed limit on I-20 to 55 for miles and let the Alabama State Troopers victimize ticket people.  I wish the troopers would enforce drivers doing bad things on the road like hogging the left lane and going in and out of traffic.  Interstate 20 from Birmingham to Atlanta has seen numerous wrecks and something needs to be done to stop the stupid drivers.  Maybe its time to lower the speed limit all the way from Birmingham to Atlanta so drivers would be safer and we are not sitting in something like this.

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