As I-75 turns more deadly, what can be done?
GAINESVILLE — Nashville resident Mark Quarles said he and his wife make the drive from Tennessee to the Orlando area on Interstate 75 several times a year to visit family, and he has noticed how speeding increases once motorists cross into Florida, particularly from Lake City south.
Quarles made the trip over the Christmas holiday and said the interstate was more crowded than usual.
Seven people died in the fiery I-75 crash Thursday. Two others died Thursday in separate crashes, making it the single deadliest day in Alachua County since a pile-up in the fog on Interstate 75 killed 11 in January 2012. It continues a growing trend of accident fatalities.
Vehicle crashes in 2017 killed 55 people in Alachua County, the most in a decade and a 52 percent increase over the 10-year average. It also was the first time in at least 15 years where there were more fatalities in Alachua County than in neighboring — and more populous — Marion County, where traffic deaths generally have been declining.
The connector would be an expansion of the Suncoast Parkway through western Marion and Alachua counties to connect with Interstate 10 near Lake City.
Hawthorne Mayor Matt Surrency, who was on the task force, said Saturday that the state should act on the recommendations that were made to make I-75 safer.
The Florida Highway Patrol is in the early stages of its investigation into Thursday's I-75 crash so it is too soon to know what factors led to it. But when an 80,000-pound vehicle is involved, the results can be catastrophic.
The Kansas City Star investigated the surge in fatal truck crashes and reported in September 2018 that the NHTSA, the federal regulatory agency responsible for protecting us from danger on the nation’s roads, has failed to mandate the truck industry implement crash-avoidance technology that is required in Europe. The Star's report says thousands of rear-end truck crashes might have been avoided.
“One can only hope that the tragedy on I-75 will cause a re-examination of priorities when it comes to truck and road safety, particularly when advanced technology exists today which could prevent the next crash, or at the very least minimize its severity. But, sadly, if history is any guide, it will be only a matter of time before the next truck-crash related funeral," said Jason Levine, director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, D.C.
State data show that truck volume on I-75 spikes in Alachua, Marion and Sumter counties. The number of crashes also is large — and growing. On that stretch of interstate, the number of crashes involving heavy trucks has skyrocketed from 171 in 2011 to 331 in 2015.
Northbound trucks coming off the turnpike are headed for the state line (31 percent) and I-10 west (31 percent).
Southbound trucks, as they approach I-10, are mostly headed for the turnpike (38 percent), points south of the turnpike (29 percent) and I-10 east (18 percent).
As anyone who drives that part of I-75 knows, all that traffic inevitably leads to a lot of wrecks. In 2011, there were 935 vehicle wrecks on I-75 in Alachua, Marion and Sumter counties. That number soared to 1,538 in 2015.
Rickey Monroe, who spent nearly 20 years on the road as an independent truck driver, is now lead instructor for the Marion County school district's commercial vehicle driving course at Marion Technical College.
Monroe said the area where the crash occurred was not known in the industry as a troublesome stretch of I-75. He said the segment between Ocala and Gainesville, including Paynes Prairie, is of more concern.
"We all knew that was where traffic often backed up," Monroe said.
"When you are driving you have to always be looking around you," Jackson said. "To be as safe as possible — that is the way you have to look at it."