Untitled Document

● Home

● The Story

● The Players

● Resources

● About Us

SHARING THE ROAD

Dense truck traffic, dangerous landscape raise I-81 safety concerns

BY: CAMERON STEELE

Pierce Owings lost his big brother and best friend on the same night. On the
Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2002, Cullum Owings died when a speeding
tractor trailer rammed into his car on Interstate 81 a few miles from their
destination.

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/INDEX(story1p1).html (1 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:24:25 AM]

Untitled Document

Pierce, a passenger in the car, escaped from the accident virtually unscathed. He would be the only one to make it back
to Washington and Lee University.

“It hit us like a freight train,” said Pierce, who after the crash looked over to find Cullum hunched beside him. At age 19, as he
sat in the back of an ambulance on Interstate 81 near Lexington, Pierce had to call his parents and tell them their son, his
brother, was gone.

“He was my best friend. I admired him,” said Pierce, now 25. “We were very close.”

Cullum Owings became another casualty on the list of 5,000 Americans who die every year in tractor-trailer-related crashes.

“That’s the equivalent of two airline crashes a month with everyone on board dying,” said Steve Owings, Pierce and
Cullum’s father.

The trucker who caused the Owings' crash was indicted on a charge of reckless driving, a criminal misdemeanor. He spent a
month in jail, paid a $1500 fine and gave up his license for a year.

The steep grades and rocky bottoms of the truck-dense I-81 make it the deadliest of Virgnina’s five interstates, said Mike Research scientist Mike Fontaine talks about the large
Fontaine, senior research scientist at the Virginia Transportation Research Council. percentage of trucks on Interstate 81.

Last year, 22 of the almost 3,000 national fatal crashes involving big trucks happened on the Virginia corridor of I-81. Of the
65 fatal crashes on the corridor in the years 2005-2007, 25 of them involved at least one truck. That’s almost 40 percent of the
fatal crashes during those three years.

On Interstate 95, which runs north-south through busy eastern Virginia, only 34 percent of fatal crashes involve at least one
Sign up for traffic alerts in Rockbridge County, Lexington
truck. And a mere 11 percent of Interstate 64’s fatal crashes involve a tractor trailer.
and Buena Vista
Fontaine, who provided those crash statistics, said that I-81 has the highest percentage of truck traffic in the Commonwealth.
That’s a growing problem for an aging, four-lane interstate.

I-81 was built to accommodate 15 percent truck traffic during its 1960s heyday. Today, tractor-trailers are up to 40 percent
of traffic. And passenger car congestion is growing fast, too, Fontaine said. Road Safe America, an advocacy group founded by the
father of crash victim Cullum Owings
Traffic volume on most segments has more than tripled since 1975, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics.
The steady traffic volume increase is due largely to the long-term economic expansion in industries and localities along the corridor.

And the deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, which made it easier for new truck companies to get started and truckers
to get licensed, quadrupled the number of trucks on the road. The Federal Highway Adminstration's Web site, offering
road statistics and other information
The multiplying numbers of cars and trucks traveling I-81 will inevitably increase the frequency and severity of crashes,
said Fontaine.

“Congestion and crashes tend to be highly correlated with one another,” he said.
Virginia Transportation Research Council
Worse, crashes that do occur on the mountainous interstate are notorious for their severity.
Since Cullum Owings’ death the Virginia Department of Transportation has spent $62.5 million in Rockbridge County alone
on widening bridges and adding truck lanes.

But long-term solutions will be costly – estimates range up to $13 billion and could take more than a decade. The federal six-
year spending plan for interstate highways is up for renewal this year, but big-ticket items such as adding more lanes to I-81
or providing the money necessary to move more freight to the railroad are not likely to be a part of the bill in a down economy.

And the almost $700 million in stimulus money VDOT has received can be used only for “shovel-ready” projects – projects that
do not need extensive planning and can be implemented immediately.

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/INDEX(story1p1).html (2 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:24:25 AM]

Untitled Document

Worse, budget-cutting measures planned in Virginia could mean less overnight parking for weary truckers looking to get off
the road for some sleep.

Next Page

©2009 by Bratu, Coupe, Statton and Steele

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/INDEX(story1p1).html (3 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:24:25 AM]

Untitled Document

● Home

● The Story

● Players

● Resources

● About Us

The safety hazards: congestion, climate, conditions

I-81’s status as Virginia’s most dangerous interstate raises the stakes for students who attend the 29 universities
along its 325-mile corridor in the state.

In 2002, Cullum Owings, then a senior at W&L, was one of those student drivers. Steve Owings said he and his
wife Susan had talked with their sons before they left about the dangers of sitting still on the Interstate.

“We talked about it that morning: ‘When you come to stopped traffic, which you undoubtedly will, try to leave
enough space in front of your car so that you can maneuver and look in the rear view mirror,’” Owings recalled.

And Pierce said that’s exactly what Cullum tried to do when he noticed the 18 wheeler’s headlights barreling
toward them. But everything happened too fast. Cullum had only managed to turn the 1992 Lexus just enough for
the driver’s side to take the brunt of the impact.

“I couldn’t even get him out," Pierce said. "Ambulance was there within 10 to 15 minutes; they couldn’t get him Robert Foresman, emergency management coordinator for
out either. They tried to back up the truck. And I think he died in my arms.” Rockbridge County, talks about the most severe recent crashes
on I-81.
Robert Foresman, Rockbridge County’s emergency management and hazardous materials coordinator for the past

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(2).html (1 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:15 AM]

Untitled Document

seven years, can spin off a laundry list of I-81’s trucking horror stories.

“In 1999 there was a major crash on the Buffalo Creek Bridge that involved 17 vehicles. We had 35 patients with
four fatalities,” he began. That was only a mile or so from the site of Cullum Owings' death.

That accident claimed the life of another student, freshman Jonathan Nabors.

As Rockbridge County’s emergency management coordinator, Foresman responds to any big rig accidents on the
Interstate between mile markers 173 and 205.

“I think that the mountainous

terrain, the way the road is banked
and designed causes problems for
drivers,” said Foresman.

Fontaine agrees. He said the high

density of truck traffic on the
interstate’s hilly terrain creates a
huge inconsistency in the speeds that
cars and trucks drive.In his research
Fontaine found that trucks
sometimes go as slow as 45 mph in
the left lane as they go up hills,
causing mile-long back-ups.

“Trucks have a disproportionate

impact on the traffic flow along I-81,
Four people were killed in this 1999 accident that happened around the I-81 particularly when you get into these
Buffalo Creek Bridge. The pile-up involved eight tractor-trailers and eight cars. locations where you’ve got the hills
(Photo: THE NEWS-GAZETTE) and valleys going up and down the
road,” Fontaine said.

That speed inconsistency is a major factor in I-81 crashes, he said.

And those are safety hazards that threaten everyone on the road. Virginia Delegate for the 24th District Ben Cline
said many of his constituents worry about driving on I-81.

“Environmental concerns or congestion concerns or safety concerns: Everybody’s got some concern that relates
to 81,” he said.

Jennifer Leech, a Rockbridge County resident who is her father's right-hand on the famiy's third-generation dairy
farm, said she is always nervous when she drives on I-81. She tries to avoid the cluttered lanes of the interstate if
she can, opting instead to take the parallel US Route 11.

“Especially if I’m driving a truck with like a livestock trailer or something, I just stay on 11,” said Leech.

A 2006 graduate of Virginia Tech, she had to drive the 100-mile stretch of the Interstate between Lexington and
Blacksburg every weekend when she was still in school.

Playing bumper cars with big trucks and careless passenger car drivers every weekend scared Leech. One Sunday
morning, she said, she was run off the road into the median by a truck that was merging onto the interstate around

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(2).html (2 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:15 AM]

Untitled Document

Troutville, north of Roanoke.

“I guess he didn’t see me. I was in his blind spot, driving a little black car,” she said.

Leech found some areas, such as the Buffalo Creek Bridge near the site of Cullum Owings’ death and the exits
surrounding Roanoke, were worse than others.

“If you went around work hours, around Roanoke, it got really, really busy and dangerous,” she said. “You
definitely had to pay attention to what you were doing.”

That sitting duck feeling is one Leech said she doesn’t want to experience again. Now she always speeds up when
she is passing a truck on I-81.

Cline said there are many others just like Leech who refuse to drive on the corridor.

“So many folks from this area are scared to get on 81 anymore, they don’t even use it. They take (Route) 11
wherever they go,” he said.

Next Page

©2009 by Bratu, Coupe, Statton and Steele

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(2).html (3 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:15 AM]

Untitled Document

● Home

● The Story

● Players

● Resources

● About Us

Searching for safety: Short-term solutions?

In 2002, Steve Owings and his wife Susan made their way up the corridor only a few months after Cullum’s death.
On their way to visit Pierce at W&L, they were shocked and sickened at the congestion and the speed with which
vehicles flew past them.

Owings knew something had to

change. In 2003, after the resolution
of the criminal case against the man
who hit his sons' car, Owings
founded Road Safe America, a
research and advocacy group
promoting safer interstate driving.
Since then, the Owings family has
worked tirelessly to spread their
message through speeches, Steve Owings describes Road Safe America partnerships.
collaboration with the American
Trucking Associations and the Road

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(3).html (1 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:35 AM]

Untitled Document

Safe America Web site.

The top, shared priority of Road

Safe America and the ATA is to
limit the speed that tractor-trailers
can drive by requiring the use of
speed governors. All trucks are
required to have the regulators, but
most trucking companies do not
require their drivers to program
them.

Owings said he thinks limiting a

truck’s top speed to 65 mph is
essential to make I-81 – and all
interstates – safer.
Research scientist Mike Fontaine talks about the effect of
“An 80,000-pound vehicle traveling different speed limits for cars and trucks..
just 60 mph has the force of the
Pierce Owings, left, spent most of his life following Cullum everywhere: to average car going over 300 mph,”
high school and then to college at Washington and Lee University, where he he said.
joined the same fraternity as Cullum, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. (Photo: STEVE
OWINGS) He said that Road Safe America and
the ATA have pursued mandatory
programming of speed governors through state departments of transportation for years. But their best hope might
lie with Congress. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act – better known as the
highway bill – is up for renewal in September. That’s the bill that is renewed every six years to authorize federal
funding of all transportation in the United States. Owings hopes that the Obama administration and the
Democratic majority in Congress will support the speed governor proposal.

But Fontaine said that speed governors might not be as safe as Owings and the ATA suggest. Fontaine cites speed
variance as a main crash cause on interstates like 81, and he thinks speed governors could create situations where
tractor trailers act as “rolling road blocks.”

“I think you can’t really say that there should be a global blanket of 65 mph on the limiters,” said Fontaine.
“Ideally, your safest mode of operation on the road is everybody’s driving about the same speed.”

Owings agrees that forcing trucks to drive at a slower speed in the right lane isn’t a quick fix. Ideally, he said,
trucks and cars shouldn’t even share the same space. But for now, he’s lobbying for short-term solutions like the
speed governors and adding a “sharing the road” program to driver education courses. The program would teach
high school students how to drive around big trucks.

Del. Cline said part of his short-term safety solutions for I-81 includes those new driver education programs. But
he thinks the best way to improve safety on the Interstate is stricter enforcement. He is trying to get money set
aside in the General Assembly to put more troopers on patrol along I-81.

But it costs $100,000 to outfit one new trooper, Cline said.

VDOT is also working to put band-aids over some of I-81’s smaller safety wounds. Matt Shiley, a regional traffic
engineer for VDOT, said that highway safety features like rumble strips, electronic message boards and the
Highway Safety Corridor running through the Roanoke area of I-81 all improve safety day to day. The safety

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(3).html (2 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:35 AM]

Untitled Document

corridor, where speed limits are lower, is sometimes criticized for increasing area congestion. But it has helped
bring the crash rate down, said Shiley.

Bridge and interstate redesign projects also help improve safety in the danger zones of I-81. In 2005, Buffalo
Creek Bridge was one such project, put on the to-do list after the Owings tragedy. The bridge was rebuilt with
wider shoulders, and a northbound truck climbing lane was added.

Visiting W&L for alumni weekends is always bittersweet, Pierce Owing said, partly because of the I-81 drive that
will always haunt him.

“Is 81 a bad interstate? Absolutely,” he said. “In terms of the interstates I travel on, and you know I live in Atlanta
– I travel on them every day – it’s one of the worst.”

Next Page

©2009 by Bratu, Coupe, Statton and Steele

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(3).html (3 of 3) [9/16/2009 11:25:35 AM]

Untitled Document

● Home

● The Story

● Players

● Resources

● About Us

Searching for safety: The rest stop controversy

For Clyde Huffman, a West Virginia trucker who has been hauling on I-81 for almost 40 years, one of the newest
highway hazards is finding a place to rest at night.

Since 2005, long-haul truckers have been required by federal law to rest 10 hours every day. That means they need
to find a place to park so they can sleep in the bunks their cabs are outfitted with.

Huffman said he likes the new regulations because they help to reduce fatigue, but they have created more
competition for parking spaces. Also, the number of trucks on the road has quadrupled since he started driving in
1976. Available truck parking hasn’t kept up with the demand, said Huffman, who chose life behind the wheel to
avoid the West Virginia mines.

“The biggest problem ... right now is parking for trucks,” Huffman said. “There is nowhere to park.”

And unfortunately for Huffman, who tries to make it home every weekend to see his 17-month-old
granddaughter, the parking problem is about to get worse.

VDOT has decided to close 19 of 41 of its public safety rest areas in a balancing act to attempt to fix a $2.6 billion
budget shortfall. Eight of those rest areas set to close are on I-81.

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(4).html (1 of 5) [9/16/2009 11:25:52 AM]

Untitled Document

Jeff Caldwell, VDOT chief of communications, said that originally VDOT planned to shut down 25 of its rest
areas in order to give the department a large portion of the $15 million it is obligated to cut from its services
Rockbridge Reporter Helen Coupe finds out how truckers feel about the closing
operation budget – money VDOT uses for roadway maintenance such as mowing, replacing signs and staffing the of rest areas along I-81.
rest areas.

“It has been one of the most controversial cuts we’ve been looking at,” said Caldwell. In a press release, he said
VDOT’s decision to continue to operate six of the rest areas originally slated to close was a compromise between
its plans and the concerns of truckers, localities and commuters along its interstates. Four of the 12 rest areas that
just barely missed the chopping block are on I-81.

Huffman said that good parking spaces are a necessity now more than ever since the federal regulations changed.
But in Virginia especially, Huffman said, parking spaces – private truck stops and public rest areas – simply aren’t
there. To further handicap a trucker’s chances of finding a safe place to rest on I-81 is dangerous and just “plain
crazy,” said Huffman.

Steve Owings said he’s on the side of the truckers.

“There are nowhere near enough places already for them to rest, and the fact that Virginia is closing the existing
places is just a travesty.

“We actually have the truck drivers’ situation foremost in our minds … because frankly, the situation we've got
now is not only unsafe, it’s immoral,” Owings said.

Caldwell argued that the Commonwealth’s rest areas serve as only 10 percent of available truck parking
throughout the state. The real problem, he said, lies in the private sector and lack of parking spaces there. And the
proposed closings – which will most likely be passed by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in July – are
just a small portion of the sacrifices that the bad economy has forced VDOT to make.

VDOT has held numerous public hearings in localities along I-81. Caldwell said those hearings helped the
department assess public opinion about the proposed cuts, including the closing of the rest areas. He received
enough feedback from the hearings to fill two file cabinets, he said, and VDOT has reviewed all of the comments I-81 Program Coordinator Fred Altizer talks about rest areas.
it has received.

"This resulted in some changes, which allow us to reach our financial targets while meeting our customers' most
critical needs," said VDOT Commissioner David Ekern in the same press release.

But even with the revised plan, there will be only six rest areas along the length of the corridor's 325 miles.
Caldwell said there isn't anywhere else for VDOT to cut funds.

“We have already laid off 20 percent of our work force,” said Caldwell. “Short of that, we don’t know where else
to get the money.” Still, Caldwell said, he is trying to help find some respite for the truckers.

Huffman hasn’t seen any respite yet. He says he doesn’t even stop at rest areas along I-81 anymore because he
knows he will be fined because of the two-hour limit the state has put on parking. That means truckers like
Huffman often resort to considerably more risky parking spots, like Interstate exit ramps.

But you get fined for parking on those too, he said. State troopers wake truckers up all the time to tell them to
move on from the rest areas or exit ramps. But that means Huffman and his fellow truckers have to make a
dangerous choice: obey the state parking law, or the federal rest time?

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(4).html (2 of 5) [9/16/2009 11:25:52 AM]

Untitled Document

And Virginia state police, Huffman said, are not sympathetic.

“You’re told that you need to plan your route better, and to go on through their state,” he said. “You know, I Sgt. Robert Carpentieri talks about the need for truck parking on
mean when there’s no parking, there is no parking,” I-81.

Darrell Lewis, a trucker who has spent his time on the road hauling gas and hazardous materials, said that he has
had many run-ins with state police while parking on I-81 exit ramps.

“I’ve been woken up... at two o’clock in the morning, out on a ramp, not hurting anybody,” Lewis said. “[They
say] ‘You’re breaking the law, you gotta go.’ ‘Well, where do I go?’ ‘I don’t know but you can’t stay here.’”

Sgt. Robert Carpentieri, public information officer for the State Police, Salem district, said that in his 20 years as a
state trooper he has never asked a trucker to leave a rest area, even if his two-hour hourglass has run out. But
when he comes across a truck parked on an exit ramp or along the side of I-81, his duty to enforce safety
overrides his compassion.

“If they’re parked on the emergency shoulder and there’s ‘No Parking’ signs we ask them to leave because that
creates a traffic hazard,” Carpentieri said.

Carpentieri acknowledged that even without the closing of the rest stops, there just isn’t enough parking for the 40
percent truck traffic that makes up the corridor’s total on an average day.

“I would just say that there probably is not enough parking in truck stops or rest areas for the amount of traffic,
truck traffic we have coming through here,” he said.

But Bobby Berkstresser, owner of Lee-Hi, a private truck stop in Rockbridge County, said he thinks the need for
more parking is minimal. Lee-Hi, which has 300 parking spaces, and other private truck stops can handle the
parking demand, Berkstresser said.

“There’s some nights you might

have to look [for parking.],"said
Berkstresser. "But the private sector
has always shown that, in fact, if the
business is out there, we’re more
than willing to increase the number
of parking spots that would be
available.”

Others have been clamoring for the

commercialization of the rest areas
VDOT plans to close as a potential
solution to I-81’s parking
shortcomings.

Cline said that the privatization

proposal is one that he’s heard
tossed around a lot. The problem is
that it breaks federal law. The law
was originally put in place to protect
local business communities on and
around the interstate by forbidding
http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(4).html (3 of 5) [9/16/2009 11:25:52 AM]
Untitled Document

the private sector to invest in or

Teresa Fisk, general manager of private truck stop White's, thinks there is
benefit from public exits. But Cline
enough parking in the private sector for trucks traveling on I-81.
(HELEN COUPE/The Rockbridge Report)
said he still thinks that the
privatization of rest areas should be
studied.

Caldwell is on board with exploring commercialization options, too. He said that the Commonwealth
Transportation Board petitioned the federal government in March to try to get some dispensation from the law.

But for now, the closing of rest areas on the clogged corridor looms large, and truckers like Huffman and Lewis
won’t be seeing any new parking perks. That puts truckers – and the other drivers with whom they share the road
– in danger.

“You’re going to find trucks all over the ramps, which is supposed to be illegal anyway,” Lewis predicted. “It’s
going to be a problem.”

Searching for safety: Distant decisions

Safety and road design problems facing I-81 won’t be solved only by rumble strips and wider shoulders.
Suggestions for long-term improvements have run the gamut – from a big-name consortium’s failed proposal to
widen the interstate to a grassroots organization’s clamoring for a rail solution.

But for now, VDOT can afford only the quick fix. Steve Owings said he and others with I-81 agendas hope the
highway bill in September will provide the dollars needed to establish longer-lasting solutions.

“We’ve got this once every six years legislative opportunity,” said Owings.

Next Story

©2009 by Bratu, Coupe, Statton and Steele

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(4).html (4 of 5) [9/16/2009 11:25:52 AM]

Untitled Document

http://journalism.wlu.edu/indepth/2009/I-81/story1(4).html (5 of 5) [9/16/2009 11:25:52 AM]