Let's Choreograph Our Driving and Living With Safety and Sensibility to Keep the Show on the Road!

I will mention some of the insights my friend and I shared (which I've already told one town leader and will write to more advocates about) regarding driving safely with teams of support for any large or unusual traffic needs.

Two situations that came to mind on my way to the event in Torrington on our hilly rural roads involved trucks, one with a trailer, not being able to see well or make a clean right turn. The solution (better choreography) would be to have voluntary (if not more regulated terms and support people ) to Assess One's Travel Needs and Route (for personal or professional transportation) by someone skilled in that area.

Then  assessments for supervisory teams going ahead of a large load or long load as well as some behind and even close to the vehicle would be sensible. There may be concerns due to size of a vehicle and road conditions (due to weather or turns, other traffic being in harm's way due to a truck blocking access to a side road one is trying to turn into (perhaps with a trailer that is not even visible initially to the driver turning onto a road) or due to the sight line in either direction being blocked (due to curves, brush and other factors.)

Any person driving such a load should have current capability and practice, particularly if not accustomed to a rental vehicle or other occasional use of equipment. Someone making sure 'best practices' are clearly conveyed to those driving and taking responsibility to help avoid 'a problem, accident or other type of avoidable situation' could be part of a nationwide, statewide and local municipal outreach. With CT having half of their fire responders (who assist or oversee traffic accident rescues if not clean up as well) greater precautions need to be spelled out to help prevent difficulties and danger. 

When the driver of one large dump truck pulling a trailer was planning to turn  right from Dibble Hill Road  onto Route 128, two cars were coming up the hill from the center of West Cornwall, where the Covered Bridge is. The first car signalled to turn right onto Dibble Hill Road, and started to turn. The second car was proceeding up Route 128.

The first car suddenly stopped instead of completely turning onto Dibble Hill because the trailer was blocking part of its lane and also happened to have a large tree brush on it that was sticking out in places. The driver of the second car went around that car quickly and past the truck which was still nosing out to assess options. Within moments, the driver of a third car came down Route 128 at a fairly high speed, not aware or concerned enough to slow down for the truck seeking to pull out or slow down for the car that was passing.

The calamity that could have unfolded had the seconds panned out differently could have been horrendous for at least one and possibly two or more of the drivers of the cars. The driver in the large truck likely would have been fine, but the point is that all could be the reason more standards are put in place and fewer people thinking 'one driver of a large load is sufficient' to travel safely on public roads.

A similar problem occurred with someone driving a moving van down Route 7 and sudddenly slowing down almost to a stop from time to time without signalling. They were not sure of which driveway they were going in. Then when they found it, one on the left, they were not able to turn completely and needed to back up into the lane to work their way into the driveway.

The sight line from that lane was not clear for those approaching that lane from the south, so ideally there would have been other travel crews with flags to help slow traffic down, put out cones and such to help people handle that transition safely.

A similar approach for the dumptruck with the large load would have made sense, with crews meeting a day or so in advance and being clear about the turns and signalling strategy (well in advance for those coming down the hill and even 2000 feet before for those coming up the hill since both lanes would be needed to let the truck enter the main road completely for about a minute or two.)

With a need for practical manpower unless drones could be set up and other signalling devices put in place (with timers or something the driver or their crew could run remotely) this is a job that many may feel could be covered by towns or other resources if not the business and personal endeavors needing to use the roads for special situations that could endanger others.

There have been problems with trucks trying to drive through narrow or low bridges, so ideally more 'wires or other warnings would be in  place' in a timely manner and close to the bridge or passways in question. I have other posts promoting safety and overall the idea of preventing speeding and reckless maneuvers can be a shared endeavor. Likely many young drivers and plenty of 'speeders' need more monitoring and 'reality checks' such as in The Convincer, but I recommend seeing a video of that rather than feeling the forces and having any upsets physically or otherwise from going fast a short distance and coming to a full stop (on that particular contraption.) Likely more people could get their adrenaline fix on a roller coaster and call it a day of fair play.