07.06.2007
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| Driver killed when semi overturns on highway ramp
Driver killed when semi overturns on highway ramp 7/6/07 Cincinnati Enquirer, OH Quote:
An Idaho truck driver was thrown from his tractor-trailer and killed Thursday morning on the ramp from Interstate 75 north to I-74.
Kevin Lynn Sawley, who works for Gray Wolf Transportation Services, was transporting a load of watermelons from Georgia to Indiana, according to Cincinnati police.
At about 9:15 a.m., Sawley, 50, lost control of the semi on the ramp. The interchange is one of the state's most hazardous, officials say.
The semi struck the guard rail and an overhead bridge support, rolling onto its right side. Sawley, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown out, police said.
The top of the semi was ripped off, spilling watermelons over the interstate.
That ramp and the Bates Avenue ramp to I-75 north were closed for much of the day.
"We've had the bottom of the bridge struck before," said Jay Hamilton, an engineer with the Ohio Department of Transportation. "In this case, it looks like he hit the bridge pier."
Hamilton doesn't recall many wrecks on that specific ramp, but many ODOT engineers are familiar with the interchange.
The truck was headed into a section of the highway that transportation engineers call "the weave." That's where vehicles merge with traffic from southbound I-75 coming off another ramp, one that had 71 accidents from 2002 to 2004, Hamilton said.
As the two ramps merge, vehicles weave left and right through four lanes of traffic at interstate speeds. That interchange has the third-highest accident rate in Ohio, according to ODOT engineer Stefan Spinosa.
The ramp with the highest number of accidents runs from eastbound I-74 to northbound I-75.
"What we've done is ground the surface to roughen it up because a lot of the accidents occur under wet conditions," Hamilton said. "Artimis has a camera out there and we can see there's been a significant impact."
But that won't be enough, engineers say.
By the end of the year, they hope to complete the preliminary engineering for a project that would reconstruct I-75 from the Western Hills Viaduct to the Mitchell Avenue exit, Spinosa said, making ramps safer and improving traffic flow.
Construction for that is scheduled to start in 2013 and expected to last at least three years.
| Enquirer article |
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